The Gong Show: Push Notification Overload
Push notifications on iPhone are a total mess. The signal-to-noise ratio when my phone buzzes is quite poor these days.
Apple is doing the classic bad design cop-out move: give the user explicit, fine-grained permissioning and then dust their hands of the problem. I have 27 different apps I can…
At this point there’s a decent comment thread on the original post, but I still want to get my thoughts in. I agree that the current iOS notification system could be much better. The most obvious thing is to change the UX from modal dialogs (that are dismissed and never seen again) to some sort of non-modal notification log that can be recalled when the user is ready to check what he/she has missed.
But I don’t think using machine learning to determine which notifications are important is a good idea. You’d need a certain amount of training data for that user before the machine learning could/should kick in, which is fine. But an incorrect decision (based on machine learning) to hide notifications would result in hiding a valuable notification from the user; that’s the worst thing you could do.
Furthermore, machine learning can’t take a user’s context into account when making a decision about whether to show a notification. What if a user dismisses a notification that he/she would normally care about because he/she is in a meeting? What if there’s nothing more to view because the notification doesn’t warrant further action? The notification is important, but the user will dismiss it.
I think it’s right to leave these decisions in the hands of the user. If the UX were better, it wouldn’t be such a mess in the first place.
Source: thegongshow
Shaved ice on a balmy Sunday (Taken with Instagram at Jo Jo TaiPei)
a negative take on the valley.
Even if Silicon Valley is on the downswing (I doubt it), it’s probably still the best place for a tech entrepreneur.
Maybe tech journalists in the Bay have grown lazy because they expect great companies to be everywhere.
It would be nice if tech journalists could provide more sober, balanced coverage instead of wetting themselves with excitement over every startup out there. Instead of churning out cheap click bait, writing with journalistic integrity would be good for everyone.
this girl's life, as she knows it, is over.
And the autotuned video at the end is pretty funny.
vivek wadhwa responds via tc.
I think I understand why Professor Wadhwa is somewhat bewildered by the controversy. I don’t want to act like I’m better than anyone here in Boston. I am, after all, living here by choice. And Silicon Valley is pretty full of itself, more than it should be. There are plenty of idiots there starting stupid companies, just like everywhere else.
But there’s no debate … Boston isn’t even in the same league as Silicon Valley as entrepreneurship goes. There’s lots of data to back up the intuition of anyone who’s lived and worked in both places.
One of the things Pat talks about for Biff Labs is trying to add to the Boston tech scene. I would love to be able to do that.
fred destin weighs in on the vivek wadhwa fiasco.
I love this Fred Destin article about the Silicon Valley vs. Boston brouhaha (clue: there is no discussion) over Vivek Wadhwa’s visit on Monday. It’s balanced and sober. Good read.
cherishing the early days as they fly by.
Sunday will be the three-month mark since Pat, Alex, and I started our work on Biff Labs. We’re now trying to raise a seed round and that comes with a certain amount of excitement/anxiety about the next few months — capital, implementation, growth, pivoting, etc. It’s easy to be excited about what’s coming because I really believe in what we’re doing.
I’m constantly anticipating our growth as a company, but I should also be cherishing these days. It’s three dudes and a dream. We quit our comfy jobs without even knowing what we were going to do; we trusted each other and hoped to do something awesome. I still hope we’re going to do that. But for now, this is really fun — just the three of us doing our thing: messing with each other and figuring things out, piece by piece.
I’ll have what @patkinsel is having (Taken with Instagram at The Paramount)
Alex and his birthday cake from Flour Bakery courtesy of @reedsturtevant (Taken with Instagram at Dogpatch Labs Cambridge)
this is why diets are impossible.
There’s no place like NYC. Those marshmallows look ridiculous.
Because in this city, there are such things as “Hot Chocolate Month.” And on the second-to-last day of this so-called month at The City Bakery, H and I shared a pretzel croissant (delish) with our own cups of Happy Hot Chocolate. Yes, those are homemade marshmallows. And I don’t even usually like marshmallows! How could I say no?
Source: jeannn
