Digital Dilemma

Customization Expectations

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As part of the renovations we needed new cupboards in the pantry area. The previous shelving had been hastily built against an unfinished wall complete with nails jutting out in awkward places. Consequently, anything pushed too far back on the skinny shelves plummeted to the floor. The nails added a touch of hazard and excitement to the otherwise boring task of retrieving something from the basement.

We wanted something adjustable and decided on IKEA. We felt this would offer us options without being too expensive. I hadn’t purchased IKEA furniture in years. There have been many changes since my last visit. Though IKEA has always been a leader in offering customizable options, it’s at a whole new level now.

Browsing on the IKEA website, I was surprised to see options for designing your own storage units. Options for designing a bathroom, kitchen, or other living spaces were also handy. When I purchased PAX units to make built-in closets about 7 years ago, I probably went to the store to see floor models. Now, you can design everything from home without making a trip, or 20, to IKEA.

Customizing units is easy in the design feature. As well, adding room measurements is also quick and easy. Swapping out colors and interiors takes only a few minutes. Rotating or moving units to see different placements takes a few mouse clicks. There are even built-in design rules that flag flaws. For example, in one design, there wasn’t enough space between the cabinet doors and the walls. On paper, it seemed that everything would fit based on the measurements. But likely, had I built it that way, the doors wouldn’t have opened properly.

Picking up the order at IKEA, I had another pleasant surprise. Near the warehouse area, I used one of the available computers to enter in a code for my design. Instantly, a check list appeared on my phone with locations and amounts for the items. However, that’s as far as the customizing went.

Arriving home, I felt slightly disappointed that IKEA didn’t create a customized manual for me to build my design. Instead, I fumbled through the printed manuals figuring out how to build a multi-cabinet unit. I also felt annoyed with some of the waste. Many pieces didn’t get used because they weren’t part of the design. The levels of customization we experience daily alters our expectations for everything now.

Digital Dilemma

Externalized Memory

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Growing up I always asked my dad, “how do you know that?”

A lot of times he replied because he was there. That he had lived through it or he just remembered. But to be honest, it was mostly because my father had an exceptionally good memory. The kind of internal memory that some people rely on, or used to rely on, to get around, do jobs, and tell stories. Now, we instantly externalize our experiences with our devices. This changes how we use our memories. We’re out of practice.

I’ve also noticed my memory declining over time. Though getting older is definitely a factor, it’s also because I don’t need to use it as much anymore. Anything I can’t remember instantly is a prime candidate for googling or digital recall in mere moments. I make a point to remember key phone numbers, but I think most people rely on their phones for this now.

The speed with which search results appear also impacts our expectations for our memories. Although it’s frustrating if I can’t remember something instantly, I challenge myself to stretch my internal memory muscles. I find if I can relax, resist the temptation of a device, and try to follow the chain, usually I’ll remember. Sometimes it takes a while. I think this is partially because I’m always distracted by my phone, trying to do more than one thing at a time. This is proven to impact memory and quality.

Another memory impact is the amount of content exposure. For example, I consumed a short mystery series in a week. Though only six episodes long, I had trouble recalling the introduction of certain key clues to the story. Since I watched it in a few sittings there wasn’t time to digest and reflect in between episodes. Growing up, we had to wait an entire week for a new episode. Many people also watched the same thing providing ample opportunities to discuss, chat, and socialize along with the watching.

With the advent of AI, we’ve moved away from not bothering to memorize to not even learning anymore! When I use AI to help me start a draft of something, it’s because I already know how to do it. I’m saving time with this shortcut. Today’s students are learning the art of the prompt rather than how to properly structure essays, create outlines, and formulate arguments.

Productivity

The Skunk and the Samaritan

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About a week ago I scratched my cornea helping to clean my neighbor’s front yard. She’s older and I noticed some pulled plants drying on the front lawn. After bagging those, I was pulling some dead matter from the yucca. While reaching for that last bit, poke! Luckily, not serious.

The following week, when a skunk got trapped in her window well, I had some serious reservations about how far I would go to assist. I felt bad for the animal, but still… skunk spray! After confirming the skunk was, indeed, trapped in the window well, I tried to adjust a basket somebody else had put there. I think it was for the skunk to climb out. However, every time I tried to get close, the skunk pointed her bum at me aiming to spray.

Then I called the City to report the trapped animal. It was a Saturday so I wasn’t sure how long it would take for someone to come. In the meantime, I googled about skunks to give her some food. Learning they eat nuts and fruits, I gently tossed walnuts and a plum into the window well.

The skunk noisily slurping on a plum. She was definitely hungry! While distracted, I flipped the basket over.

By this time, the City came. Within minutes the animal was freed! I watched the whole rescue. Maybe the most fascinating part was that the city worker only wore a regular pair of latex gloves. No special clothing, no face shield, nothing protective really. The skunk sprayed a lot during the rescue filling the air with noxious, pungent fumes. But luckily, I avoided a direct hit.

The City worker scaring the skunk away after the daring rescue. She was ready to spray again. Notice the healthy looking, eye-stabbing yucca in the foreground.

What struck me most about this whole situation was that people knew the skunk was trapped in the window well on Thursday. Somehow, I didn’t get this vital piece of information until Saturday. Though I kept wondering why the skunk smell was so strong near the backdoor for days! Once I found out, I immediately called the City to report the trapped animal.

Even if somebody didn’t know to call the City, which I’m assuming nobody did, isn’t this what the internet is for? To connect people to resources? To answer those perplexing questions for an uncommon, surprising situation? And yet, nobody did. Even more puzzling than how the skunk ended up in the window well for over two days, was trying to understand why nobody could connect technology to nature and help this poor animal.

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

The Seduction of the Subscription Service

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Here’s a true confession, I’m still enjoying my AI swim goggles. At first, I only used the goggles for my own personal workouts. Initially, the goggles were really good at showing me exactly how boring my routine workout is! I’ve been doing the same sets for at least 10 years. However, when I signed up for the head-coach subscription service, things started to ramp up.

Signing up for the subscription unlocked basically all the cool features in the goggles. Now I get feedback on many aspects of my swims including:

  • the angle of my head underwater
  • how much I tilt my head when taking a breath
  • how long it takes me to return to a neutral head position after breating
  • how well I pace my self during a set and from one set to the next

In addition to the tracking, the goggles dynamically adjusts workout recommendations based on which skills I need to work on. Everything is customized in real time. The workouts are another huge perk. The goggles provide instructions for my workouts in the display and track everything. I’ve noticed my stats improving in all areas since I paid for the subscription. And that… is the seduction of it.

The subscription is not super expensive at around $120/year, but that’s not the point. The point is that now I’m hooked on it. Without the extra subscription cost, the goggles only function at a basic, minimal level. I’m pretty sure I can’t even upload my own workouts into the goggles without the subscription, thereby reducing the benefits of these expensive, AI-powered goggles.

This is part of a growing trend to provide consumers with devices that need subscriptions to function, or function fully. Naturally, there are pros/cons to this approach. In my entrepreneurial days, everybody was trying to build a subscription service. It’s a way to guarantee steady, sometimes called “passive,” income every month. This can be more reliable than a one-time purchase because it maintains the customer base.

For the consumer, it can make something expensive more affordable. Subscriptions can be monthly, offering smaller amounts. On the other side, this also means the consumer will always be paying monthly, or lose the service. After experiencing the full effects of the subscription service in my goggles, I have to confess it would be hard to let it go. Though benefitting, I’m also committed to the extra payments.

Digital Dilemma, Productivity

Work Life Boundaries

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After the impacts of covid, when more people started working from home, work hours became blurry. At some point they developed a work hours policy at my job. Basically, it allows us to have some flexibility with our work day, provided we’re available from 10 – 3. We’re reminded to be respectful of other people’s working hours, which may not be the same as our own. However, in a world where any hour can be somebody else’s working hours, sometimes it feels as though there are no standards anymore.

This past weekend I filled out an online form for an estimate with two separate companies for a service. When scheduling most things can happen with little to no human interaction, it felt strange to be receiving phone calls. Even more bizarre, both of the phone calls came late on a Sunday night. One was around 8pm and the other after 9pm. The date I requested was for early September, so in my mind, it felt like the phone call could have waited until Monday. And preferably happened at a more reasonable time of the day.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about boundaries and “respectable” work times in favor of convenience when everything is available all the time. Yet, technology has also prepared us for some of these scenarios. It may seem like a small feature, but I personally love the ability to schedule messages. First of all, I can write and send messages when it’s convenient for me. Then, I can schedule when the message will arrive for the recipient. For example, when my boss is on vacation, I schedule emails to arrive after he returns. My work is done and he can view the messages after he’s settled in. This is a win-win!

I also use this in my personal life when friends are on vacation. Or if I only have time to reply to people late at night. I’m mindful to schedule messages to arrive the next morning to avoid pinging notifications disrupting sleep. In most cases, I’m not looking for an instant reply so the delayed send works well for me, too.

For myself, and my staff, I prioritize work-life boundaries. I encourage people to close computers at the end of the work day and stop checking phone notifications. I remind myself, and employees, to take breaks and enjoy hobbies. When all else fails, use the scheduling feature!

Productivity

Finding Efficiencies

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I’m always amazed at people’s resistance towards recognizing efficiencies. I experienced this first hand when I had my first will drafted about 15 years ago. I hired a lawyer to do the paperwork. However, his process started by giving me a very long, very complicated, form to fill out. The form was clunky and badly formatted. Most of the questions didn’t apply to me, yet, I still had to carefully read each one to make sure I didn’t leave anything out.

The whole time I suffered through this form, I couldn’t help wondering what the lawyer would do with it. The process was terrible. Overly manual and filled with lots of small, important details that were easy to miss in the complexity of the form. When I met with the lawyer, I asked him how he used the form. He explained that he carefully reviewed the multiple times, to make sure he didn’t miss anything. Then transfer the information from the form to the document.

I mentioned there were more efficient and less error-prone ways to accomplish this. Yet, the lawyer told me efficiency wasn’t in his best interests. If something took a long time, it meant there were more opportunities to charge the client for more work. Something about this never sat well with me. I used to be a small business owner, but I would never have used the excuse of charging clients more to be intentionally inefficient. For me, the pain of doing tedious, manual, low-quality work, was incentive enough to streamline my processes.

Similarly, learning that some people in the work place also frown upon efficiencies is surprising. In these scenarios, it’s because they fear losing additional headcount. However, in my opinion, streamlining process and finding efficiencies focuses on quality work. Nobody wants to be copying and pasting information or manually re-entering something because of a bad form. This is garbage work and introduces a lot of errors and re-works into the process.

Efficiencies can often create win-win scenarios. For example, every DIY home project results in multiple trips to Home Depot. Why? Mostly because I don’t gather enough information at the beginning of the project. The fix is easy, spend a few more minutes determining what needs to be done. Measure everything. Go to the store once and buy everything. Then save time with the repair work knowing it’s all ready to go.