I was listening to an EconTalk with Shoshana Zuboff about her book "Surveillance Capitalism". She mentioned how tech giants have this cycle of getting their products out in the market:
Redditors on almost any other topic: "FUCK baby boomers they drained the economy they are taking everything for themselves they own all the houses they leave nothing for the future."
Redditors when I say I'm opposed to raising SS benefits because the majority of the federal budget shouldn't go to Boomer retirees (SS + Medicare): "Fuck you you greedy corporate shill."
The idiocy is astounding. Social Security is an important social safety net, but it crowds out private savings and it therefore diminishes the capital stock for private investment. Medicare and SS are the two biggest chunks of the federal budget, and they crowd out economic growth.
I'd much rather see the 401(k) and IRA tax-free contribution caps doubled, and see some sort of program to Nudge companies into automatically enrolling workers into private savings plans--especially lower-end workers.
For anyone still on the fence around the potential dangers of surveillance like this please read this book immediately:
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power https://www.amazon.com/dp/1610395697/
We have unknowingly given these companies ultimate power over our future. Three men control the majority of the world's opinions and have the ability to force their worldview on everyone.
Yep. It also contributes to the vicious cycle of partisan politics. The Internet has made it so easy to find people with similar views, it leads to folks becoming even more emotionally invested in those beliefs, to the point where it gets increasingly difficult to consider other points of view. That's why you and Grandma will laugh at each other WAY more than you'll consider each other's points. On top of the fact that we're all using memes to make fun of each other, you're already conditioned to support other folks who agree with you.
By the way, it's not just social media and human nature causing the problem. Google is making it worse too. Consider reading up on the concept of a filter bubble, and if it strikes your fancy, I just started reading a book I'm recommending to a lot of people called The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. Basically, when Google, Amazon, and other sites try to tailor search results and ads to what they already know you like and agree with, you become even less likely to be introduced to viewpoints outside of our own.
We can talk all day long about how partisan and segregated we are in today's global society, but in reality, it's the things that connect us that are feeding the problem.
If you're interested in reading about this and other subtle strategies used to influence, I suggest you check out the book influence: the psychology of persuasion. It's one of my faves. It details:
All very interesting stuff that you can see in action every day.
That hard yank on the emotions drives urgency. Too hard a yank is 9 times out of 10 your clue of a financial scheme.
Recommended reading, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion"
Social proof in action. Long queues signal that if other people are willing to wait for the food, the stall's food must be good. It is a form of heuristic people use to make decisions about what is good or not. However, the long queue could be a result of slow cooking process, or the stall used to be good so but because the cook changed, the standard went down but people still queue based on the reputation of the stall. The book, "
Also if you queue for a long time, by the time you get your food, you are very hungry so anything tastes nice!
> it's like they think i'm only on their site to earn rubies
They're nudging you for continuous interaction. The idea is to get you to make it a routine.
Relevant book recommendation:
https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788
For the uninitiated - 'Hooked - how to make habit forming products' is on pretty much every start-up's bookshelf in Silicone Valley.
https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788
I don’t think it is throwing shade, rather just a genuine description of Thaler and his work. Even Thaler describes himself as lazy and irrational. Most of his academic work is pointing out flawed human thought processes, and behavioral economists have only recently started to apply “nudges” to have positive real world outcomes.
The feeling of “inevitableness” is part of the strategy google and other data company’s are pushing so we feel helpless to stop them. Stop being helpless and merely accept the digital world the way (and extremely lucrative) Google and Facebook want it to be.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Harvard’s Shoshana Zuboff’s 2019 book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a fantastic overview.
Io consiglio vivamente il libro che sto leggendo in questi giorni: Robert Cialdini - Influence - The Psychology Of Persuasion.
Spiega molti meccanismi con numerosi esempi, copre anche quello di cui la ragazza cui fa riferimento OP è rimasta vittima.
Hey, I just graduated from IIIT BBSR, now I'm at IIT BBSR doing research. If you need detailed guidance please PM me direct or I usually attend Quora Meetups ( Reddit BBSR subreddit is dead ) or Dev Meets in BBSR. We could meet in person for a nice chat.
Here's a short outline on what I think you should do:
Individually:
Group/Social stuff:
Above all, don't do something because it's the trend. Do if it's fun. Sorry for the brevity and not much of an expert advice on the job/software product market as my career is mostly research and a bit of entrepreneurship.
For the very best of times,
Ankit
Maybe there's an online copy, but if that seems insightful, you may enjoy this groundbreaking book:
https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X
I learned many of those mental tricks through sales experience.
Thats not how efficiency increases work.
When we made aluminum cans that use 80% less aluminum than they did 30 years ago, we didn't start ALSO mining more aluminum as a result.
Fact is, when we make the production of something more efficient, we make less of it.
There are entire books about this effect that break down this result for every single material you can think of from aluminum to gas to rubber to argon. https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources_and/dp/1982103574
You will never win an argument by presenting your facts and proving that your adversary is wrong. They will never admit that no matter how clear your argument is (unless you are arguing with someone whose job it is to be open minded e.g. scientists)
You will get much further by influence and persuasion. Influence by Robert Cialdini worked very well for me in this regards.
Check out the book "Hooked"
https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788
It's largely an instruction manual for how to build super addictive apps, and driving these highly emotional dopamine responses is a big part of it.
Well I'm glad Apple users are being forced to wake up at least. There's a mighty solid apathy about surveillance in most Apple users.
And speaking of surveillance and how it has already turned the world on its head, this is also available in audio so your can get your wake-up on in the car.
There is literally a very popular industry pop book called Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. This sits on the shelf of every software product team everywhere.
It does have a chapter discussing the ethics of persuasion though. It's not a terrible, evil book but that that title should tell you everything you need to know about the approach to designing user experiences and the cutthroat jostling for a larger user base.
It all comes down to nice behaviour because it's a great way of exploiting the social principle of [reciprocity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(social_psychology\)).
If someone's being nice to you, giving you compliments, flirting with you, giving you free stuff, they want something. Maybe not right away, but it creates an expectation that the "niceness" should be returned.
An example of this is people seeking donations. They'll give free gifts to make you feel obligated to give something back.
Check out the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. He goes into various ways that our behaviours can be influenced, and talks a bit about how to handle being manipulated.
Part of growing up is realizing this is simply how the world works. Most things are transactional. There's always an exchange, a give and take involved on some level.
Key point to note is that it doesn't work for sex. You can't negotiate attraction. My personal opinion is that this is why people that are successful in business, typically, aren't successful with women, and vice versa, because they require opposing strategies.
It's not us.
"Gossip" can bind groups, and it can tear them asunder. The hedgies have clearly hired top tier social engineering talent. It's a $10 word for troll and others.
I would suggest reading the seminal "Influence" by author Cialdini. It's a fascinating, highly readable pre-woke, ie, real science, examination of social human behaviors.
>https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X
As noted, do SFAS selection preparation and you'll be ok physically. Read Influence and Verbal Judo.
Also, DM me if you have other questions.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini amazon
>Unless I'm mistaken that's exactly the definition of growth.
For practical reasons, it's how growth is calculated, but a growth in GDP isn't quite the same as economic growth. For example, when the US had a 9% contraction in their Q2 of 2020, it would be a mistake to assume this means that the US economy suddenly lost 9% of its capacity to produce goods and services.
>But once again : what good is it to be rich if you have destroyed the environment in the process (destructive growth). You're not going to be able to buy anything when the ecological crisis comes. You're still using money as a proxy for quality of life which is true to some extend... but isn't once you reach a certain physical limit (the limits of earth and natural resources).
This is certainly an argument against the relentless pursuit of growth. But it's a normative statement, not an economic one. Also consider for a minute the fact that the US is using fewer resources now than it was 30 years ago despite huge increase in productivity:https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources_and/dp/1982103574
>Sorry, but I'm really not convinced by your answer.
Not really trying to convince you of anything. Just letting you know about the alternative arguments out there for growth-based policy.
No. We're already products (Free services from Google, YouTube...). Do not want to subject myself to that type of physical quantification and control.
I recommend that you read this book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1610395697/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_fDZfFbS565K16
Cialdini is a good go-to for this type of stuff. Here's his popular press book, it contains academic citations for everything he discusses.
Predictably Irrational. Drunkard's Walk was pretty good too from what I remember.
I sell an online CD/download (well, used to). After reading "Predictably Irrational", which is not by Thaler, but based on his concepts of how we make irrational decisions, I changed the pricing on my content, and sales shot up.
https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248
...wanting to move to a better opportunities for my wife’s profession and a better work life balance and may be improve earnings
Not sure if this is true but... working off of the premise the odds of landing a job as a dentist in Canada are not bad or good. I would say Canada.
Pay seems pretty good in both Canada and NZ. I don't know what purchasing power looks like side by side.
However the gross number of job opportunities in Canada...
Not knowing anything about you and your family other than the little that's posted on here...
I'm going by the Wisdom of Crowds (https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/dp/0385721706)....
And there's other factors but... I know a lot of people from NZ move to Australia. Doing quick google search... around 568,000 New Zealanders live in AU. NZ's population is almost 5 million. 568,000/5,000,000 = 11.36%. If my math is correct 11% from NZ choose to move to AU. Who knows how many more Kiwis moved to places that aren't AU.
There are other factors (ie low level of legal barriers to move from NZ to AU)... but less than 8% of Canadians live abroad.
Move to Canada if you can't decide. Move to NZ if there's something there you want that NZ has but Canada doesn't have.