The mistake we all make... and the simple experiment that reveals it

Your answer reveals how you see the world – and the common error that hampers our decision making. In an extract from his new book, psychologist Richard Nisbett reveals the ‘mindware’ to help us think smarter

Gazing through a lens, I invent as much as I reveal | Psyche Turning Points

For years I watched people through cameras and screens, filling in the blanks and calling it truth

The more we rely on tech, the more we deskill our bodies | Aeon Essays

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending

The Biggest Mistake I See Engineers Make

Throughout my career, the biggest mistake I see engineers make is doing too much work on their own before looping in others.   I’ve experienced this mistake as both an IC and a manager. As an IC, it’s a mistake I made many, many times early in my ow...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Remote Work (After 5 Years of Experience)

Learning about working from home and location independent lifestyle was a true pivotal moment for me. Before that, I didn’t think much about the concept of “freedom at work” or anything like that. And even though the concept was a bit far-fetched for me at the time, I realized that it surely was something that I would… Read More »The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Remote Work (After 5 Years of Experience)

How remote work is quietly remaking our lives

Working from anywhere: the good, the bad, the lovely.

‘Ugh Fields’, or why you can’t even bear to think about that task

Have you ever had a long-overdue task — a task which isn’t so bad in itself — but which you can’t even bring yourself to think about?

Thought as a Technology

Have you ever felt awe and delight upon first experiencing a computer interface? An interface that surprised you with its strangeness, with a sense of entering an alien world?

Childhood and Education #20: Phones and Screens

We have a respite, so I thought I’d tackle various thoughts on children, phones and screens.

The 10 Things You Learn After One Month Of Remote Work | I Done This

At iDoneThis, we’ve got our team spread all across the world. Germany, Italy, New York, Wisconsin. The company has been remote from Day 1 and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Working from a home office or coworking space gives us the freedom to work how we want and…

No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior

Electronic media present us with a collage of experiences from everyplace. We eat dinner at home while watching starving children thousands of miles away reach out to us for food. From our easy chairs, we stare at blindfolded hostages, and coolly

25 Things I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

I moved to San Francisco 9 months ago from the East Coast bastion of Boston. Despite having experience living in a major US city, I found quite a few surprises coming here.  Some have been great, w…

Ubiquitous Accessibility for People with Visual Impairments: Are We There Yet?

Ubiquitous access is an increasingly common vision of computing, wherein users can interact with any computing device or service from anywhere, at any time. In the era of personal computing, users with visual impairments required special-purpose, assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to interact with computers. This paper investigates whether technologies like screen readers have kept pace with, or have created a barrier to, the trend toward ubiquitous access, with a specific focus on desktop computing as this is still the primary way computers are used in education and employment. Towards that, the paper presents a user study with 21 visually-impaired participants, specifically involving the switching of screen readers within and across different computing platforms, and the use of screen readers in remote access scenarios. Among the findings, the study shows that, even for remote desktop access—an early forerunner of true ubiquitous access—screen readers are too limited, if not unusable. The study also identifies several accessibility needs, such as uniformity of navigational experience across devices, and recommends potential solutions. In summary, assistive technologies have not made the jump into the era of ubiquitous access, and multiple, inconsistent screen readers create new practical problems for users with visual impairments.