- Dec 2024
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But perhaps that's too ambitious to suggest taking on for either camp. And maybe it doesn't matter insofar as the real lessons of Worse is Better is that both first mover advantage on a quicker and popular solution outpaces the ability to deliver a more correct and robust position, and entrenches the less ideal system. It can be really challenging for a system that is in place to change itself from its present position, which is a bit depressing.
Succinct description of worse is better
The 'worse' bit moves you along in the adjacent possible paths of the [[Evolutionair vlak van mogelijkheden 20200826185412]], where as the 'better' bit puts you at a peak in the evol landscape from which you can't move and hard to get to for others.
via via Chris Aldrich in h. pointing to Christian Tietze comment https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/22075/#Comment_22075 pointing to this Christine Lemmer-Webber post, following it onwards to https://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html by Richard P. Gabriel
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- Jun 2023
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techpolicy.press techpolicy.press
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In 2010, Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell wrote a book about tech innovation that described the way technologists fixate on the “proximate future” — a future that exists “just around the corner.” The authors, one a computer scientist, and the other a tech industry veteran, were examining emerging tech developments in “ubiquitous computing,” which promised that the sensors, mobile devices, and tiny computers embedded in our surroundings would lead to ease, efficiency, and general quality of life. Dourish and Bell argue that this future focus distracts us from the present while also absolving technologists of responsibility for the here and now.
Proximate Future is a future that is 'nearly here' but never quite gets here. Ref posits this is a way to distract from issues around a tech now and thus lets technologists dodge responsibility and accountability for the now, as everyone debates the issues of a tech in the near future. It allows the technologists to set the narrative around the tech they develop. Ref: [[Divining a Digital Future by Paul Dourish Genevieve Bell]] 2010
Vgl the suspicious call for reflection and pause wrt AI by OpenAI's people and other key players. It's a form of [[Ethics futurising dark pattern 20190529071000]]
It may not be a fully intentional bait and switch all the time though: tech predictions, including G hypecycle put future key events a steady 10yrs into the future. And I've noticed when it comes to open data readiness and before that Knowledge management present vs desired [[Gap tussen eigen situatie en verwachting is constant 20071121211040]] It simply seems a measure of human capacity to project themselves into the future has a horizon of about 10yrs.
Contrast with: adjacent possible which is how you make your path through [[Evolutionair vlak van mogelijkheden 20200826185412]]. Proximate Future skips actual adjacent possibles to hypothetical ones a bit further out.
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