Tedium - Friction, Baby 🐌

Today in Tedium: I think, in many ways, one of the biggest challenges we face as computer users is that things are sometimes too easy. We can control our home from thousands of miles away, and cause servers to go offline with the switch of a button. And yes, there are times when you want that. But the problem is, when everything is easy—press a switch, and you can have nonstop entertainment until the end of time, cognitive overload is always around the corner, trying to get us to switch gears. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve got shit to do. In that spirit, I want to make the case that we need more friction in our computing experiences, so that when we do make decisions, they’re more explicit and less mindless. Today’s Tedium stands up for friction. — Ernie @ Tedium

(Nick Morrison/Unsplash)

Our interfaces don’t do enough to lock us into specific tasks

The web browser has mostly been a good thing for computing. It makes it possible to access things simply and cheaply. Culture that might have once been kept behind a gate or books that might have required you to travel to them to access them are now freely accessible through the web. This is excellent.

As a result of this, we have a far larger breadth of information available to us at all times.

But it has created a societal problem that is at times tough to navigate. Simply put, when you have access to an easy path, you fail to fully appreciate its value. Let me offer a few examples of what I mean:

1. Spotify has made it possible to listen to basically any song we want without a problem, but now we’re in a position where music is almost mindlessly appreciated, especially compared to CD or record collections, which require intent—because, after all, we had to buy the damn things.

2. Social media, which is designed to be easy to consume, creates feedback loops that can be dangerous if you’re not careful. If you’re stuck inside one of those, you might find yourself mindlessly reloading social network front pages all day.

3. Misinformation is simply easier to spread than regular information, and a big reason for that comes down to the fact that well-researched information tends to cost money and creates time to produce. Propaganda and lies are cheap to make, and anyone can do it.

And when new options are always a tab away, suddenly, we find ourselves getting pulled in directions that go directly against our intentions.

We have a lot of easy paths forward, and when there’s no resistance, no friction, we run into traps. Our relationship with creative work is gradually diminished; we get lied to by our information outlets; we find ourselves addicted to our phones. The clear negative effects of the friction aren’t appreciated because we were moving so fast that we missed them on the way.

When every user interface is slick and designed to maximize engagement, the result that we keep sliding down the path of least resistance until we reach bottom.

This explains some of my concern with artificial intelligence. To be clear, I am an enthusiast of AI’s potential. I think it offers more good than harm, and I support the general idea of making artificial intelligence better, within reason. But if it is not offered with intent, it further greases the slide.

Look, there are points where you want to do things with less friction. If the process is keeping you from doing something at all, there is clearly a need for it to be simplified. But the problem is that the friction-removal processes themselves lack friction. You can’t add sandpaper to grease to make it less slick—it’s either slick or it’s not.

For this reason, when I heard Automattic was adding AI-generated text capabilities to its default WordPress plugin this past week, I raised concerns. It’s not that it can’t add things like those, or that people won’t find value in them. It’s more of a slick-surface problem: A content management system like WordPress is designed to make it easy to publish words, and it handles basically every part of the process except writing the words. Now, it can handle that, too.

It is the equivalent of waxing a bobsled so much that when it starts moving, it causes a fire that damages the course. WordPress was built to make it easier to publish. It was not built to replace the actual creation process.

When things are too easy, they lose value. There has to be some level of meat-grinding that needs to happen to make room for intent, or you’ll end up grinding the filet mignon into hamburger.

I find that as I get older, clear signs of ADHD are showing themselves. Focus is harder, and if I’m going to stay productive, I need to actually think hard about what I’m doing, or I’m going to start going left.

Technology plays directly into this tendency. It doesn’t tell you when to stop. Because it does so many things, it allows for mindless use, rather than use with intention. So you can use a computer for days on end and not really do much with it.

Compare this to, say, reading a book. When you pick up a book, generally that requires a certain level of intent. On a physical level, it is only designed to do one thing, like an umbrella. And while you can get distracted from reading it, its organizing principle is such that you have to reject the concept of reading the book entirely to disengage. Compare that to the internet, where there’s always a Plan B.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying the internet is bad. Tying back to the book example, putting a book on the internet can create a lot of value—you can research within the work in a non-linear fashion, for example. But the tactile feeling of turning the pages signals intent, something that is too easily lost in our world.

When I used my computer, I want to figure out a way to so with intent. And intent requires friction.

(Manikandan Annamalai/Unsplash)

The case for building a “friction tunnel”

Web browsers are designed to favor your desire paths—the paths that you create through frequent use. If you like using YouTube, many web browsers will load it up after you only type one or two letters in the address bar, and because you’re logged in, all of your favorite videos are already set up for you.

This is great if your goal is to spend your entire day watching YouTube, but when you have shit to do, it’s a real productivity risk.

One suggestion I have for resolving this issue is by creating something I call a “friction tunnel,” a zone where the distracting stuff is extremely hard to access and removed of much of its flashy appearance, but the not-so-fun stuff is easy to do. It is a backstop against decisions that will harm your productivity.

With the web browser, a great place to start is by leaving as much logged out as you can, browsing in incognito mode, or (if you do need to be logged in) setting a profile that has no access to certain features like your bookmarks or your browser history. This makes it so that if you need to pull something up, you have to actually take the step of typing it in, in full.

Think about this like going to a bar. If you know the bartender well, there’s a chance they might give you stronger drinks than you might have gotten otherwise—great if your goal is to get drunk, but not so great if you’re just stopping in for a visit. If your goal is not to drink at all, you probably shouldn’t go to a bar—but sometimes you have to be around alcohol, and self-control isn’t always easy. One way to get past this is to force yourself into an unfamiliar environment, where the friction is high, and the easy solutions are harder to access.

But if you know you need to complete some research, obviously it makes sense to go to a library, where all the books are. This device you use can go to any possible environment in the digital world. The problem is, it is just as easy to spend all day in the arcade as it is to sit in front of a typewriter.

The solution is to put more resistance into your path of least resistance, so your objective doesn’t get lost in a sea of non-stop entertainment and immersion.