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Tristan Harris
Personal blog · tristanharris.comphilosophyculture
Tristan Harris's personal blog at tristanharris.com covers philosophy and culture. Since 2017, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Google’s Design Ethicist”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Tristan Harris's writing on how technology hijacks attention and persuades users. Commenters often summarise his "menu" and "hijack" points, and some describe him as worth hearing on the topic.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Entrepreneur, philosopher, humane tech activist
Most-linked posts?
- How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Google’s Design Ethicist7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2017-04-18
- /essays/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-24
What Hacker News says?
There is an interesting article where a Google design ethicist explains how technology hijacks your mind [1]. TL;DR: Hijack 1: If You Control the Menu, You Control the Choices. Ask yourself: What’s not on the menu?, Why am I being given these options and not others? Do I know the menu provider’s goals? Is this menu empowering for my original need, or are the choices actually a distraction? Hijack 2: Make apps behave…
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia”Submitted How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Google’s Design Ethicist as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> For a big enough digital product, "hacking psychology" happens by default, more than intentionally... Totally agree. > ..arrived at through a sort of natural selection process. I am not so sure. This all well-known stuff and employed methodically. There is an interesting article where a Google design ethicist explains how technology hijacks your mind [1]. TL;DR: Hijack 1: If You Control the Menu, You Control the C…
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “Sean Parker unloads on Facebook “exploiting” human psychology”Submitted Google ethicist explains how technology hijacks your mind as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf you're a mammal, you are subject to operant conditioning. Hell, most vertibrates are, as well). You aren't "freakish" for believing advertising doesn't work on you. There are plenty of gamblers who have convinced themselves that they have a system that will beat the house or alcoholics that believe they can hold their liquor. The world is rife with people who believe they are immune to marketing. Nearly no one be…
Comment linking /essays/
on “Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores”Submitted How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds from a Former Google Design Ethicist as a story · 1 points
HN discussionTristram Harris [1][2] is worth listening to on these points, I'm sure many on HN are already aware. Without rambling too much, I'm one of those over-sensitive, slightly aspie types that reads SSC and gets carried away with over-analysing the zeitgeist. Uncharitably, you might say 'smart but weak-minded'. The longer I spend in front of social media, the more and more in tatters I feel. I spent a week entirely discon…
Comment linking /essays/
on “Ex-FB exec: The dopamine-driven feedback loops are destroying how society works”When thousands of very intelligent and highly motivated people dedicate their lives to creating applications that exploit human cognitive and social systems for advertising money, it's something to be concerned about. Attention is a zero sum resource, and humans can be manipulated into spending their time in ways that are not in their best interest. Edit: Tristan Harris has written interestingly on this topic: http:…
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “Instagram daily use surpasses Snapchat”Some other references: https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-mak... http://www.tristanharris.com/2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-... https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tr...
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “Roger McNamee: I invested early in Google and Facebook and regret it”Sure, human nature won't change. But when the incentives are aligned differently, the overall behavior of such a system could indeed affect humans differently. Right now, the goal is eyeballs glued to the page, and thus the algorithms deep down find the most clicky/sticky things to put in front of your eyes. If the goals were different, such a network might instead encourage different behaviors, like actually not us…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Is 2018 the end of Facebook?”I hadn't done any scientific studies, just had read about it and decided to give it a try on my phone. It made a difference for me, so I wanted to make something for chrome since as a dev I spend most of my day on there. I'd say it's worth a try at least to see if you see a difference. It's strange browsing without color, and when you use grayscale and go back to color it almost feels overwhelming. Here are some art…
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “Show HN: Grayscale the Web – A Chrome extension to help avoid mindless browsing”Here that same Google design ethicist explains in detail how technology hijacks your mind [1]. TL;DR: Hijack 1: If You Control the Menu, You Control the Choices. Ask yourself: What’s not on the menu?, Why am I being given these options and not others? Do I know the menu provider’s goals? Is this menu empowering for my original need, or are the choices actually a distraction? Hijack 2: Make apps behave like Slot Mach…
Comment linking /2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/
on “Former Google Design Ethicist: Big Tech in Schools Is Race to the Bottom (2018)”