zlacker

[parent] [thread] 19 comments
1. motoha+(OP)[view] [source] 2019-12-16 14:18:35
The opposite of calm tech could be called something like hustle tech, where the interfaces create user stress by opening cognitive loops. Nagging indicators, garden path personal information extraction, leveraging users time investment, Nir Eyal's "hooked model" designs, automated sales pipelining (or spam), dark patterns, etc.

Funny that some startups by middle class people thought "hustle," meant energetic teamwork like on a kids sports team, whereas if you had any street smarts at all, hustle means getting leverage over someone by pre-empting their ability to reason accurately, often by bullying, nagging, feigning offence, and exploiting their agreeableness by making them think they "owe," you.

Preying on human goodness like reciprocity, empathy, fairness, and agreeableness is basically what a hustler and hustle tech does.

replies(5): >>mindfu+95 >>mc_blu+6d >>tbrown+Te >>germin+Kh >>eckza+es
2. mindfu+95[view] [source] 2019-12-16 15:02:09
>>motoha+(OP)
I so got hustled this morning. Not by tech, but by a human. Thank you for giving a word to the experience.
3. mc_blu+6d[view] [source] 2019-12-16 15:53:32
>>motoha+(OP)
Why can't there be multiple definitions for hustle? I agree that your street smart definition is valid, but I also think that energetic teamwork is an equally valid definition.
replies(4): >>motoha+tg >>jstumm+Ng >>MadWom+Vg >>dkarl+Zm
4. tbrown+Te[view] [source] 2019-12-16 16:06:25
>>motoha+(OP)
whereas if you had any street smarts at all, hustle means

... Something relevant to street culture rather than middle-class culture?

replies(1): >>shantl+sI1
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5. motoha+tg[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 16:20:55
>>mc_blu+6d
Because when you say one and mean the other, it legitimizes the wrong kind of behaviour, and people don't have the words to describe it so they check out and call it "toxic."
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6. jstumm+Ng[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 16:23:20
>>mc_blu+6d
Well, there are multiple definitions of hustle. They keep changing with the times and also depending on who you talk to. What one party might consider "selling", another might consider "being preyed upon". What one might consider "courteous", another might consider "sexist".

We are so eager to try and find a neat place for all our interactions. It never works like that. Pretty much everything ends up being relative.

Anywho, as far as definitions go "energetic teamwork" to me does not really qualify, because hustling in any commonly used sense is not at all required to be a team effort.

replies(1): >>ryandr+Fh
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7. MadWom+Vg[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 16:24:21
>>mc_blu+6d
Because there is a lot of difference between the two and yet both definitions are in the same general domain. So if you use the word and mean one definition, but the person you are talking to hears the other definition, you are in for some most interesting communication problems. If you tell me that you are good a hustling during a job interview, I will most definitely not hire you.
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8. ryandr+Fh[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 16:30:13
>>jstumm+Ng
> Anywho, as far as definitions go "energetic teamwork" to me does not really qualify, because hustling in any commonly used sense is not at all required to be a team effort.

The point of hustle in the “kids sports team” context is that a team that “hustles” can beat an equally skilled team that doesn’t. In my experience this is also true of other kinds of teams and even in contests among individuals.

replies(1): >>motoha+Yr
9. germin+Kh[view] [source] 2019-12-16 16:31:07
>>motoha+(OP)
I suspect these anti-social patterns will only become intensified should the AR vision become reality. Who is going to push back on supporting and actively reinforcing the common vices of pride, vanity and sloth when designing, for instance, facial filters and entertainments? No one that matters.
replies(1): >>jkestn+jM1
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10. dkarl+Zm[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 16:59:00
>>mc_blu+6d
I wish there could be, but thanks to the "street" definition, when people hear the word "hustle" used inside a startup, many of them take it to mean, "This is an environment where dishonest, predatory behavior will be celebrated as ambition."

"Hustle" was one of my favorite words growing up, because it described something I admired and wanted to embody myself, but I have retired it from my active vocabulary outside of sports contexts, because if it's misunderstood, it's going to be misunderstood as something that I loathe.

replies(1): >>shantl+1I1
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11. motoha+Yr[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 17:26:16
>>ryandr+Fh
Where the street vs. earnest definitions overlap is it means to "seize the initiative." You get leverage in both contexts, the question is whether you seize the initiative by having something to offer, or by fabriating problems for for your target to solve.

A sign-up wizard that splits up users' PII entry so they are invested in the process by the time it asks them for the valuable stuff is a good UX tech example.

Spam messages that pretend to be bills or from an authority are well into dishonest territory. The key difference seems to be in the honesty of the problematization. It's a continuum.

The best hustles play on the target's conceits, the worst on their virtues. 3-card monte plays on greed and a sense of superiority.

Business ones are basically blackmail like, "everyone thinks you're a smart problem solver who is easy to work with, if you want that to continue to be true, you will solve this problem for me, I'll let you know when you're finished." Less tech oriented, but the leverage pattern is similar.

12. eckza+es[view] [source] 2019-12-16 17:27:30
>>motoha+(OP)
One thing that I’ve done that’s made my iPhone much less distracting, is to run the display in black and white.

This makes my notification badges scream for my attention much less. The whole phone feels calmer and less distracting. I have actually been doing this for over a year, and it’s been life-changing.

Another benefit is that due to the increased contrast of black and white, I can run my brightness way lower; this is excellent for battery life. Screenshots still show up in color.

I have an Accessibility Shortcut mapped to my side button to turn this on and off. If I want to look at a photo or something, I toggle it by triple-clicking my side button. It’s seamless and it stays out of my way.

For anyone who wants to try this: Go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Color Filters. Flip the switch to enable and select “Grayscale”.

Then, go back up to Settings -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Shortcut and select “Color Filters”.

replies(5): >>tomr_s+Ot >>crehn+fE >>mhink+DF >>mavsma+SV >>ed312+SW
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13. tomr_s+Ot[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 17:35:38
>>eckza+es
Thank you for these detailed instructions! I've been a longtime fan of grayscale screen, but often end up lapsing after a few days when I want to look at a photograph. Now I don't have that failure mode anymore!
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14. crehn+fE[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 18:32:36
>>eckza+es
You might even want to enable Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency for a little extra legibility.
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15. mhink+DF[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 18:39:20
>>eckza+es
This is super interesting! I'm giving it a shot.
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16. mavsma+SV[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 20:15:26
>>eckza+es
Really interesting. I'm on Android so I'll have to look into how to get similar functionality.
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17. ed312+SW[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-16 20:21:54
>>eckza+es
Thanks for this tip! You can also set the "accessibility shortcut" to toggle this with a triple click of the lock button.
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18. shantl+1I1[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-17 01:45:43
>>dkarl+Zm
My entire experience with "hustle" in the context of making money was as a near-synonym for scamming people. Not until I encountered HN and related startup culture did I read/hear it used in that sense. I bet if I told most people I know without such exposure anything like "hustling is an important part of my business' success" they'd look at me funny, as they'd take it as an admission I commit lots of fraud or something similar.

Yeah there's the meaning in sports which was probably the first I ever encountered, but it's pretty different from the startup/business definition (one might relate them, but they seem to me to carry pretty different connotations) and again, in the context of some kind of money-making venture my association with it was 100% "scamming folks".

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19. shantl+sI1[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-17 01:50:32
>>tbrown+Te
I've not encountered the HN meaning of it outside startup culture, specifically. There's a kinda-similar definition in sports that's common but not quite the same, and then if you're talking about "hustle" as in "part of a money-making venture" it means you're running a scam or shady semi-legal or illegal business of some kind. Everywhere except HN and broader tech startup culture. Though that usage does seem to be spreading.

[EDIT] for context, my upbringing was very much not in "street culture"

[EDIT EDIT] I may be alone in this, but I dislike the HN use of the word on the grounds of both other definitions—the sports version strikes me as trying too hard to associate business with sports as a kind of borrowed glory or, in the worse cases, lame machismo, while the way it also—by my own prior association and in the ways the use of the term differs subtly from the sports meaning—brushes up against the "running a scam" definition is bad on its own, obviously, but also makes the sports association grosser, somehow.

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20. jkestn+jM1[view] [source] [discussion] 2019-12-17 02:30:53
>>germin+Kh
A classic vision of AR where Idiocracy meets Stephenson: https://vimeo.com/8569187
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