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Can adding a little friction back to user interfaces save us?

Show notes

We talk about the currently-trendy concept of (design) friction and how it is necessary but not sufficient for right action on the Internet.

Links

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• Facebook admits that it intentionally defrauded children by making it easy to buy in-game purchases
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• The creator of the retweet button now thinks it was a bad idea (Mea culpa: We stated this article was written in Wired but it was in BuzzFeed)
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• Dark patterns
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• Alt-Meat Trounces Animal Meat\\u2019s Massive Inefficiencies
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• The Launch: After two decades of research and development, WA 38 lands this fall. It could disrupt an entire industry.\\u2014It\\u2019s an apple.
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• Manton Reece on hashtags and curation\\u2014note that Chris said these were totally curated, and they\\u2019re not; but they\\u2019re also designed not to behave like trends and hashtags on Twitter.\\n
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  • Search in Micro.blog
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  • Books on Micro.blog
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• A short history of Gamergate
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• A compendium of articles concerning how Gamergate changed the Internet
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• Data arguing that Gamergate was more about harassment than ethics
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• A growing list of former tech company workers who regret their design decisions
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• The Center for Humane Tech\\u2019s podcast Your Undivided Attention
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• Tim-Berners Lee on his disappointments and frustrations with what people did to the world wide web
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Things Chris has written in relation to this episode:

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• Friction is the Friend of Serendipity
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Previous episodes:

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• 2.03: Impervious Scale\\u2014The Roman Empire and Friendster Have Things to Say to You
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• 6.08: People Do Reject Technologies, Part 2\\u2014Nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, and how to argue well with intractable disagreements.
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• 7.01: Do We Really Need to Keep the Internet Around? Season 7\\u2019s charter\\u2014by way of a rollicking argument about Alan Jacobs\\u2019 The Year of Our Lord 1943 and Tolkien\\u2019s idea of eucatastrophe.
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Music

\\u201cStig of the Dump / Ogglet (Live)\\u201d - El Toppo (By the way, Stig of the Dump is a classic British children\\u2019s story, just in case you were wondering. Stephen looked it up after the show.) - \\u201cWinning Slowly Theme\\u201d by Chris Krycho.

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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• Daniel Ellcey
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• Jake Grant
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• Jeremy W. Sherman
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• Marnix Klooster
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• Nathaniel Blaney
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• Spencer Smith
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If you\\u2019d like to support the show, you can make a pledge at Patreon or give directly via Square Cash.

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