Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It by Mike Monteiro

Author:Mike Monteiro [Monteiro, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Mule Books
Published: 2019-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

SETTING THE RIGHT GOALS

Why are you building what you’re building? What problem is it fixing? Who, besides the people in charge, stand to benefit from your labor?

The first question we ask anyone we’re in the process of engaging with at Mule is “why are you making this?” If the answer comes back as any version of “because there’s an opportunity to make money,” we’re out.

Obviously, making money is important in most endeavors. When it’s the primary reason for doing something, I begin to worry. First of all, money-making opportunities change with the wind. You don’t want to get into a months—or years—long relationship with someone based on where the wind is currently blowing. Secondly, and most importantly, when people’s main driver is financial, that means the health of the people using the product and the products effects on society are by definition secondary.

Let’s make the point using our favorite punching bag, Twitter. Twitter’s main goal is to make money. In their quest for money, they’ve allowed their platform to be overrun by Nazis, white supremacists, and other agents of harassment and abuse, because those people drive engagement. Twitter makes money from engagement. When I say that Twitter hasn’t done anything about abuse on their platform I’m not being totally honest—they’ve profited from it.

On September 23, 2017, Donald Trump tweeted out a direct threat to North Korea. (For the record, North Korea replied that they saw it as a declaration of war. 2The bluster was on both sides.) Within minutes of Trump’s tweet, Twitter sent me an email with the tweet, in case I’d missed it, in case my heart wasn’t racing fast enough. Because their main goal is making money. At any expense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.