How better tech could protect us from distraction
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0:02 - 0:06What does it mean to spend our time well?
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0:08 - 0:10I spend a lot of my time
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0:10 - 0:14thinking about how to spend my time.
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0:15 - 0:17Probably too much --
I probably obsess over it. -
0:17 - 0:19My friends think I do.
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0:19 - 0:23But I feel like I kind of have to,
because these days, -
0:23 - 0:27it feels like little bits of my time
kind of slip away from me, -
0:27 - 0:32and when that happens, it feels like
parts of my life are slipping away. -
0:33 - 0:34Specifically,
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0:34 - 0:37it feels like little bits
of my time get slipped away -
0:37 - 0:39to various things like this,
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0:39 - 0:41like technology -- I check things.
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0:42 - 0:43I'll give you an example.
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0:44 - 0:46If this email shows up --
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0:46 - 0:48how many of you have gotten
an email like this, right? -
0:48 - 0:51I've been tagged in a photo.
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0:52 - 0:53When this appears,
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0:54 - 0:57I can't help but click on it right now.
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0:57 - 0:59Right? Because, like,
what if it's a bad photo? -
1:00 - 1:01So I have to click it right now.
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1:02 - 1:04But I'm not just going
to click "See photo," -
1:04 - 1:07what I'm actually going to do
is spend the next 20 minutes. -
1:07 - 1:08(Laughter)
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1:08 - 1:12But the worst part is that I know
this is what's going to happen, -
1:12 - 1:16and even knowing
that's what's going to happen -
1:16 - 1:19doesn't stop me
from doing it again the next time. -
1:20 - 1:23Or I find myself in a situation like this,
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1:24 - 1:28where I check my email
and I pull down to refresh, -
1:29 - 1:33But the thing is that 60 seconds later,
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1:33 - 1:36I'll pull down to refresh again.
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1:38 - 1:40Why am I doing this?
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1:40 - 1:42This doesn't make any sense.
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1:43 - 1:47But I'll give you a hint
why this is happening. -
1:48 - 1:53What do you think makes
more money in the United States -
1:54 - 1:59than movies, game parks
and baseball combined? -
2:02 - 2:03Slot machines.
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2:05 - 2:08How can slot machines make all this money
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2:09 - 2:14when we play with such small
amounts of money? -
2:14 - 2:16We play with coins.
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2:16 - 2:17How is this possible?
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2:18 - 2:20Well, the thing is ...
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2:21 - 2:25my phone is a slot machine.
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2:26 - 2:28Every time I check my phone,
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2:28 - 2:30I'm playing the slot machine to see,
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2:30 - 2:31what am I going to get?
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2:32 - 2:33What am I going to get?
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2:33 - 2:35Every time I check my email,
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2:35 - 2:36I'm playing the slot machine,
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2:36 - 2:38saying, "What am I going to get?"
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2:38 - 2:41Every time I scroll a news feed,
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2:41 - 2:43I'm playing the slot machine to see,
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2:43 - 2:45what am I going to get next?
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2:46 - 2:47And the thing is that,
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2:48 - 2:51again, knowing exactly
how this works -- and I'm a designer, -
2:51 - 2:53I know exactly how
the psychology of this works, -
2:53 - 2:55I know exactly what's going on --
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2:55 - 2:57but it doesn't leave me with any choice,
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2:57 - 2:59I still just get sucked into it.
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3:00 - 3:02So what are we going to do?
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3:03 - 3:06Because it leaves us
with this all-or-nothing relationship -
3:06 - 3:08with technology, right?
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3:08 - 3:10You're either on,
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3:11 - 3:13and you're connected
and distracted all the time, -
3:13 - 3:15or you're off,
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3:15 - 3:16but then you're wondering,
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3:16 - 3:18am I missing something important?
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3:18 - 3:21In other words, you're either distracted
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3:21 - 3:24or you have fear of missing out.
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3:24 - 3:26Right?
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3:27 - 3:31So we need to restore choice.
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3:32 - 3:34We want to have
a relationship with technology -
3:34 - 3:39that gives us back choice
about how we spend time with it, -
3:39 - 3:42and we're going to need
help from designers, -
3:43 - 3:45because knowing this stuff doesn't help.
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3:45 - 3:48We're going to need design help.
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3:48 - 3:49So what would that look like?
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3:51 - 3:53So let's take an example that we all face:
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3:53 - 3:56chat -- text messaging.
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3:56 - 3:58So let's say there's two people.
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3:58 - 4:01Nancy's on the left
and she's working on a document, -
4:01 - 4:02and John's on the right.
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4:03 - 4:04And John suddenly remembers,
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4:04 - 4:08"I need to ask Nancy
for that document before I forget." -
4:10 - 4:12So when he sends her that message,
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4:12 - 4:14it blows away her attention.
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4:15 - 4:19That's what we're doing all the time,
bulldozing each other's attention, -
4:19 - 4:20left and right.
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4:20 - 4:22And there's serious cost to this,
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4:23 - 4:25because every time
we interrupt each other, -
4:27 - 4:30it takes us about 23 minutes, on average,
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4:30 - 4:32to refocus our attention.
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4:32 - 4:35We actually cycle through
two different projects -
4:35 - 4:38before we come back
to the original thing we were doing. -
4:39 - 4:43This is Gloria Mark's research
combined with Microsoft research, -
4:43 - 4:45that showed this.
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4:45 - 4:49And her research also shows
that it actually trains bad habits. -
4:49 - 4:51The more interruptions we get externally,
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4:51 - 4:56it's conditioning and training us
to interrupt ourselves. -
4:56 - 5:00We actually self-interrupt
every three-and-a-half minutes. -
5:01 - 5:02This is crazy.
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5:02 - 5:04So how do we fix this?
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5:04 - 5:07Because Nancy and John are in this
all-or-nothing relationship. -
5:07 - 5:08Nancy might want to disconnect,
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5:08 - 5:10but then she'd be worried:
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5:10 - 5:12What if I'm missing something important?
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5:12 - 5:14Design can fix this problem.
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5:15 - 5:17Let's say you have
Nancy again on the left, -
5:17 - 5:19John on the right.
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5:19 - 5:21And John remembers,
"I need to send Nancy that document." -
5:21 - 5:23Except this time,
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5:23 - 5:24Nancy can mark that she's focused.
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5:24 - 5:26Let's say she drags a slider and says,
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5:26 - 5:28"I want to be focused for 30 minutes,"
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5:28 - 5:30so -- bam -- she's focused.
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5:31 - 5:33Now when John wants to message her,
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5:33 - 5:36he can get the thought off of his mind --
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5:36 - 5:38because he has a need,
he has this thought, -
5:38 - 5:40and he needs to dump it out
before he forgets. -
5:41 - 5:42Except this time,
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5:42 - 5:47it holds the messages
so that Nancy can still focus, -
5:47 - 5:49but John can get the thought
off of his mind. -
5:51 - 5:54But this only works
if one last thing is true, -
5:54 - 5:59which is that Nancy needs to know
that if something is truly important, -
6:00 - 6:01John can still interrupt.
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6:04 - 6:08But instead of having constant
accidental or mindless interruptions, -
6:08 - 6:11we're now only creating
conscious interruptions, -
6:13 - 6:15So we're doing two things here.
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6:15 - 6:18We're creating a new choice
for both Nancy and John, -
6:18 - 6:21But there's a second, subtle thing
we're doing here, too. -
6:22 - 6:25And it's that we're changing
the question we're answering. -
6:26 - 6:29Instead of the goal of chat being:
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6:30 - 6:33"Let's design it so it's easy
to send a message" -- -
6:33 - 6:35that's the goal of chat,
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6:35 - 6:37it should be really easy to send
a message to someone -- -
6:38 - 6:41we change the goal to something
deeper and a human value, -
6:41 - 6:45which is: "Let's create the highest
possible quality communication -
6:45 - 6:48in a relationship between two people.
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6:48 - 6:50So we upgraded the goal.
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6:52 - 6:55Now, do designers
actually care about this? -
6:55 - 7:00Do we want to have conversations
about what these deeper human goals are? -
7:01 - 7:02Well, I'll tell you one story.
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7:02 - 7:05A little over a year ago,
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7:05 - 7:08I got to help organize a meeting
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7:09 - 7:13between some of technology's leading
designers and Thich Nhat Hanh. -
7:14 - 7:19Thich Nhat Hanh is an international
spokesperson for mindfulness meditation. -
7:19 - 7:21And it was the most amazing meeting.
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7:21 - 7:23You have to imagine -- picture a room --
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7:23 - 7:27on one side of the room,
you have a bunch of tech geeks; -
7:27 - 7:28on the other side of the room,
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7:28 - 7:33you have a bunch of long brown robes,
shaved heads, Buddhist monks. -
7:34 - 7:38And the questions were about
the deepest human values, -
7:38 - 7:40like what does the future
of technology look like -
7:40 - 7:42when you're designing
for the deepest questions -
7:42 - 7:44and the deepest human values?
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7:44 - 7:48And our conversation centered
on listening more deeply -
7:48 - 7:50to what those values might be.
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7:51 - 7:53He joked in our conversation
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7:53 - 7:55that what if, instead of a spell check,
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7:56 - 7:58you had a compassion check,
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7:58 - 8:02meaning, you might highlight a word
that might be accidentally abrasive -- -
8:02 - 8:04perceived as abrasive by someone else.
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8:05 - 8:09So does this kind of conversation
happen in the real world, -
8:09 - 8:11not just in these design meetings?
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8:12 - 8:13Well, the answer is yes,
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8:13 - 8:15and one of my favorites is Couchsurfing.
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8:16 - 8:19If you didn't know,
Couchsurfing is a website -
8:19 - 8:23that matches people
who are looking for a place to stay -
8:23 - 8:26with a free couch, from someone
who's trying to offer it. -
8:26 - 8:28So, great service --
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8:28 - 8:29what would their design goal be?
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8:29 - 8:32What are you designing
for if you work at Couchsurfing? -
8:32 - 8:37Well, you would think
it's to match guests with hosts. -
8:38 - 8:39Right?
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8:39 - 8:40That's a pretty good goal.
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8:40 - 8:43But that would kind of be like
our goal with messaging before, -
8:43 - 8:45where we're just trying
to deliver a message. -
8:45 - 8:48So what's the deeper, human goal?
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8:48 - 8:50Well, they set their goal
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8:50 - 8:56as the need to create lasting,
positive experiences and relationships -
8:56 - 8:58between people who've never met before.
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8:59 - 9:02And the most amazing thing
about this was in 2007, -
9:02 - 9:05they introduced a way to measure this,
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9:05 - 9:06which is incredible.
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9:06 - 9:07I'll tell you how it works.
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9:07 - 9:09For every design goal you have,
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9:09 - 9:11you have to have
a corresponding measurement -
9:11 - 9:13to know how you're doing --
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9:13 - 9:14a way of measuring success.
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9:14 - 9:15So what they do is,
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9:15 - 9:18let's say you take two people who meet up,
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9:20 - 9:24and they take the number of days
those two people spent together, -
9:25 - 9:28and then they estimate how many
hours were in those days -- -
9:29 - 9:32how many hours did
those two people spend together? -
9:32 - 9:34And then after they spend
that time together, -
9:34 - 9:35they ask both of them:
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9:35 - 9:37How positive was your experience?
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9:37 - 9:40Did you have a good experience
with this person that you met? -
9:41 - 9:44And they subtract
from those positive hours -
9:44 - 9:48the amount of time
people spent on the website, -
9:48 - 9:51because that's a cost to people's lives.
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9:52 - 9:53Why should we value that as success?
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9:54 - 9:56And what you were left with
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9:56 - 10:00is something they refer to as "net
orchestrated conviviality," -
10:00 - 10:03or, really, just a net
"Good Times" created. -
10:03 - 10:08The net hours that would have never
existed, had Couchsurfing not existed. -
10:09 - 10:13Can you imagine how inspiring it would be
to come to work every day -
10:13 - 10:14and measure your success
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10:14 - 10:19in the actual net new contribution
of hours in people's lives -
10:19 - 10:22that are positive,
that would have never existed -
10:22 - 10:25if you didn't do what you were
about to do at work today? -
10:26 - 10:31Can you imagine a whole world
that worked this way? -
10:32 - 10:34Can you imagine a social network that --
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10:34 - 10:36let's say you care about cooking,
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10:36 - 10:39and it measured its success
in terms of cooking nights organized -
10:39 - 10:42and the cooking articles
that you were glad you read, -
10:42 - 10:45and subtracted from that the articles
you weren't glad you read -
10:45 - 10:48or the time you spent scrolling
that you didn't like? -
10:48 - 10:52Imagine a professional social network
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10:52 - 10:55that, instead of measuring its success
in terms of connections created -
10:55 - 10:57or messages sent,
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10:57 - 11:01instead measured its success in terms
of the job offers that people got -
11:01 - 11:03that they were excited to get.
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11:04 - 11:08And subtracted the amount of time
people spent on the website. -
11:09 - 11:12Or imagine dating services,
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11:12 - 11:13like maybe Tinder or something,
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11:13 - 11:17where instead of measuring the number
of swipes left and right people did, -
11:17 - 11:19which is how they measure success today,
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11:19 - 11:25instead measured the deep, romantic,
fulfilling connections people created. -
11:27 - 11:29Whatever that was for them, by the way.
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11:32 - 11:35But can you imagine a whole world
that worked this way, -
11:35 - 11:37that was helping you spend your time well?
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11:39 - 11:41Now to do this you also need a new system,
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11:41 - 11:43because you're probably thinking,
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11:43 - 11:44today's Internet economy --
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11:44 - 11:46today's economy in general --
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11:46 - 11:47is measured in time spent.
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11:47 - 11:49The more users you have,
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11:49 - 11:51the more usage you have,
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11:51 - 11:52the more time people spend,
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11:52 - 11:54that's how we measure success.
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11:54 - 11:56But we've solved this problem before.
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11:57 - 12:00We solved it with organic,
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12:00 - 12:03when we said we need
to value things a different way. -
12:03 - 12:06We said this is a different kind of food.
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12:07 - 12:09So we can't compare it
just based on price; -
12:09 - 12:11this is a different category of food.
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12:11 - 12:14We solved it with Leed Certification,
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12:14 - 12:17where we said this
is a different kind of building -
12:17 - 12:21that stood for different values
of environmental sustainability. -
12:22 - 12:27What if we had something
like that for technology? -
12:28 - 12:33What if we had something
whose entire purpose and goal -
12:33 - 12:37was to help create net new positive
contributions to human life? -
12:39 - 12:42And what if we could
value it a different way, -
12:42 - 12:44so it would actually work?
-
12:45 - 12:49Imagine you gave this different
premium shelf space on app stores. -
12:49 - 12:51Imagine you had web browsers
that helped route you -
12:51 - 12:53to these kinds of design products.
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12:55 - 13:00Can you imagine how exciting it would be
to live and create that world? -
13:01 - 13:04We can create this world today.
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13:05 - 13:08Company leaders, all you have to do --
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13:08 - 13:11only you can prioritize a new metric,
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13:11 - 13:16which is your metric for net positive
contribution to human life. -
13:16 - 13:18And have an honest
conversation about that. -
13:18 - 13:20Maybe you're not
doing so well to start with, -
13:20 - 13:22but let's start that conversation.
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13:23 - 13:29Designers, you can redefine success;
you can redefine design. -
13:29 - 13:33Arguably, you have more power
than many people in your organization -
13:33 - 13:36to create the choices
that all of us live by. -
13:36 - 13:38Maybe like in medicine,
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13:38 - 13:40where we have a Hippocratic oath
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13:40 - 13:44to recognize the responsibility
and this higher value -
13:44 - 13:45that we have to treat patients.
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13:45 - 13:47What if designers had something like that,
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13:47 - 13:49in terms of this new kind of design?
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13:51 - 13:53And users, for all of us --
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13:53 - 13:56we can demand technology
that works this way. -
13:57 - 13:59Now it may seem hard,
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13:59 - 14:03but McDonald's didn't have salads
until the consumer demand was there. -
14:05 - 14:09Walmart didn't have organic food
until the consumer demand was there. -
14:09 - 14:13We have to demand
this new kind of technology. -
14:14 - 14:15And we can do that.
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14:16 - 14:18And doing that
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14:18 - 14:21would amount to shifting
from a world that's driven and run -
14:21 - 14:24entirely on time spent,
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14:25 - 14:29to world that's driven by time well spent.
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14:32 - 14:34I want to live in this world,
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14:34 - 14:36and I want this conversation to happen.
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14:37 - 14:38Let's start that conversation now.
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14:40 - 14:41Thank you.
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14:41 - 14:43(Applause)
- Title:
- How better tech could protect us from distraction
- Speaker:
- Tristan Harris
- Description:
-
How often does technology interrupt us from what we really mean to be doing? At work and at play, we spend a startling amount of time distracted by pings and pop-ups — instead of helping us spend our time well, it often feels like our tech is stealing it away from us. Design thinker Tristan Harris offers thoughtful new ideas for technology that creates more meaningful interaction. He asks: "What does the future of technology look like when you're designing for the deepest human values?"
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:55
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Maggie S (Amara staff) edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Maggie S (Amara staff) edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Maggie S (Amara staff) edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction | ||
Brian Greene accepted English subtitles for How better tech could protect us from distraction |