The Mistakes People Make When Designing Attention Manipulation Technologies

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Truiston, harris and near el all began their careers as actual designers of e technology. They've seen the design side of the stuff; then they've kindo had almost like finding religion moment wherthey've gone to the other side. And they're now in the sort of evangelical mode where it's like, you know, an aa programme,. The godlike technology has hacked your attention... You have to admit that there's a higher power and you're powerlessi get a very, a wipe from it.

Writer and management consultant Venkatesh Rao talks about Waldenponding with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Rao coined the term Waldenponding to describe various levels of retreating from technology akin to how Thoreau extolled the virtues of retreating from social contact and leading a quieter life at Walden Pond. Rao argues that the value of Waldenponding is overrated and that extreme Waldenponding is even somewhat immoral. Rao sees online intellectual life as a form of supercomputer, an intellectual ecosystem that produces new knowledge and intellectual discourse. He encourages all of us to contribute to that intellectual ecosystem even when it can mean losing credit for some of our ideas and potentially some of our uniqueness.