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Google Glass, snap judgments, and how we form ourselves to make those snap judgments well.

Show Notes

Google Glass failed miserably. Why? Because people sometimes do reject technologies. But why? People\\u2019s snap judgments are far from infallible, of course, but in this case they seem to have been correct. How can we train our snap judgments to be correct more often? And how can we interrogate and sharpen our own judgments?

Links

Google Glass background and commentary:

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• Google X and the Science of Radical Creativity: How the secretive Silicon Valley lab is trying to resurrect the lost art of invention (The Atlantic) \\u2013 with this important note that Stephen mentioned during the show:

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  First, they said, Glass flopped not because it was a bad consumer product but because it wasn\\u2019t a consumer product at all. The engineering team at X had wanted to send Glass prototypes to a few thousand tech nerds to get feedback. But as buzz about Glass grew, Google, led by its gung-ho co-founder Sergey Brin, pushed for a larger publicity tour\\u2014including a ted Talk and a fashion show with Diane von Furstenberg. Photographers captured Glass on the faces of some of the world\\u2019s biggest celebrities, including Beyonc\\xe9 and Prince Charles, and Google seemed to embrace the publicity. At least implicitly, Google promised a product. It mailed a prototype. (Four years later, Glass has reemerged as a tool for factory workers, the same group that showed the most enthusiasm for the initial design.)

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• \\u201cI, Glasshole: My Year With Google Glass\\u201d \\u2013 Matt Honan at Wired

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• \\u201cThe Rise of the Term \\u2018Glasshole,\\u2019 Explained by Linguists\\u201d (The Atlantic)

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• \\u201cHow the Camera Doomed Google Glass: By including a recording device, the first-gen smart specs went from dorky to disturbing.\\u201d (The Atlantic)

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• \\u201cGoogle Glass 2.0 Is A Startling Second Act\\u201d \\u2013 Steven Levy at Wired, covering how Glass is finding its home in a more sensible role

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Chris\\u2019 example of his own snap judgment was in reading \\u201cGoogle\\u2019s Selfish Ledger Is An Unsettling Vision Of Silicon Valley Social Engineering\\u201d at The Verge.

Music

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• \\u201cLeafroad\\u201d by BLACKNIGHT. Used by permission.
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• \\u201cWinning Slowly Theme\\u201d by Chris Krycho.
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Sponsors

Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month\\u2019s sponsors:

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• Andrew Fallows
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• Kurt Klassen
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• Jake Grant
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• Jeremy W. Sherman
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