One of the major reasons for increasing homogeneity is big data.
This is why websites, apps, and ads look the same. They have been optimized to capture the attention of your lizard brain. These aesthetics have been carefully analyzed and fine-tuned through A/B experimentation to capture the most eyeballs, produce the most clicks, increase the dollars in your shopping cart.
I remember reading once that Steve Jobs only assigned his engineers one project at a time to optimize focus. A potentially apocryphal story because I later read his biography and didn't find any mention of this.
I personally have a tendency to cherry-pick easy tasks and procrastinate on the gnarlier ones. Single-threading projects would force me to confront those difficult tasks and "eat the frog".
> But the one belief I've come to is that we do ourselves a disservice when we fall pray to the idea that the universe has some purpose for us.
I spent my 20's agonizing over whether or not I was working toward a purpose. While there is value in introspection, I regret that I devoted so much time to this question. I was not living in the moment, I was not enjoying my life. I'd constantly question whether I was on the wrong path, if I could have been more impactful if I had only taken that job at the risky climate-focused start-up, gone back to school for a PhD, quit everything and traveled the world, etc.
Do not fall into this trap. We cannot know our purpose of our life until it is over. Like many others in this thread, I highly recommend "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. It's probably the only book on this topic that I actually found helpful.
> Many professors I know will freeze in class when realizing they were praising the work of a “colonialist” such as Darwin or Newton.
The American left has lost the ability to see shades of gray. No human since the dawn of time has been perfect. If we cherry-pick which scientists to believe based on their moral stance from centuries ago, we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
It takes a lot of courage nowadays to stand up to cancel culture. Luana Maroja likely risked her career to write this article.
Could not agree more. I hate speaking off-the-cuff and being forced to evaluate an idea with only a split-second of contemplation time within a meeting.
We're trying to move to 6-pagers (a la Amazon) or at least a documentation-first culture but buy-in has been difficult. People find it easier to simply drop a meeting on everyone's calendar and then aimlessly toss out ideas for 30 minutes. When I try to send a document ahead of time, no one has read it when they show up, and they bristle when asked to take the time within the meeting to read it.
Has anyone had success moving to this kind of format? How do you change the culture of an organization away from blathering and toward thoughtful writing?
Optimize for what excites you, not necessarily what you may be naturally talented in. Work hard at what you find fun, and the skill will follow.
Cautionary tale: I am a data scientist and love working with numbers. I fell into a job that required me to create educational videos about data science. I discovered that I am very good at narrating and creating educational videos.
People loved these videos! I was even told I should offer my services as a part-time voice actor due to my narration skills. More and more requests for videos kept piling in.
Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was get back to writing code. I didn't mind creating the videos but I found them draining. Analytics is truly what makes me happy and excited to start work in the morning. A career is a marathon and if you're not optimizing for what fills your cup every day, you will quickly burn out.
This is why websites, apps, and ads look the same. They have been optimized to capture the attention of your lizard brain. These aesthetics have been carefully analyzed and fine-tuned through A/B experimentation to capture the most eyeballs, produce the most clicks, increase the dollars in your shopping cart.