Posts

False Simplicity in User Interfaces

1) Loss of Context One type of false simplicity arise when you simplify an interface in a way where the user end up losing context. Such loss of context can happen when you oversimplify or outright remove UI elements such as hierarchy indication (indentations, semantic markup, breadcrumbs etc.), navigation history (visited link state), labels, indication of selections, instructions and so on. https://baymard.com/blog/false-simplicity

Seattle misreads Thomas Piketty supporting $15 minimum wage

They read the Cliff Notes version by Paul Krugman. https://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/jun/03/thomas-piketty-seattle-minimum-wage-risks-jobs

Is this a time of reconing for men, or for a few men?

I don't think most men have been going around raping or using job power to pressure women into sex. It may well be limited to 10% or less of men who are powerful, arrogant and without good character. It may be limited to the super-successful men who women throw themselves at like groupies.  The average man doesn't even have power to pressure women if he wanted to. The average man is lucky if he has sex with one woman, if he's nice to her. And the MeToo movement is mostly limited to Hollywood and politics so far. Not much from mainstream business even concerning CEOs and billionaires.

judges don't have to be calm when personally attacked--they recuse themselves

 They also ignore that our legal system recognizes that judges are real people who sometimes have intense positions, which is why judges don’t decide their own cases or cases in which they have a personal connection; instead they recuse themselves.  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/04/on_the_question_of_judicial_temperament_138257.html

Enlightenment or Christianity as root of environmental problems

It's common to blame Christianity for environmental problems, resulting from its view of man as above nature.  A while ago I came upon this book review, by a secular environmentalist, which points to the Enlightenment as a key to the destruction of nature in the Industrial Revolution:  ... early Enlightenment thinkers like Francis Bacon or Rene Descartes thought of nature as so much booty for humanity to pillage and condoned eco-cidal acts. Johan Hari http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2009/01/move_over_thoreau.html Another is here: Take, for example, John Locke’s assertion that nature without man is wasted and therefore if any man were to use his labour to harvest land then it should belong to him. Joe Dyke https://gapsinthedialogue.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/the-environment-and-the-enlightenment/#more-81 And it is not hard to believe with a little reflection--while Christianity portrays man and nature as Gods creatures (with man over nature)...