JoS
Joel nails it again. Seems like the quality of this guy's pieces started out Very Good and has steadily climbed ever since.
Links in there led me eventually to a pretty authoritative declaration that "incentives" are, as a general rule , counterproductive. Someone needs to tell the econodwarf.
I'm with Joel; the iPod is Amazing Design. Looking at the image, something occurred to me:
It looks like a freaking screenshot of a media player on your desktop. Seamless, the beveled/shadowed sides, the simple and spacious control wheel. I actually have a hard time believing that this is a photograph of a physical object.
What does that do for the user? I think it subconsciously makes himher feel like part of some futuristic world, one that I've fantasized about, with interactive display screens floating in physical space. You use your finger instead of a mouse. Real Minority Report type stuff. More of this, please.
Links in there led me eventually to a pretty authoritative declaration that "incentives" are, as a general rule , counterproductive. Someone needs to tell the econodwarf.
I'm with Joel; the iPod is Amazing Design. Looking at the image, something occurred to me:
It looks like a freaking screenshot of a media player on your desktop. Seamless, the beveled/shadowed sides, the simple and spacious control wheel. I actually have a hard time believing that this is a photograph of a physical object.
What does that do for the user? I think it subconsciously makes himher feel like part of some futuristic world, one that I've fantasized about, with interactive display screens floating in physical space. You use your finger instead of a mouse. Real Minority Report type stuff. More of this, please.
posted by Matt C at
5:18 AM
2 Comments:
Joel is awesome. I need to frequent his stuff more.
The iPod is awesome. I'm only afraid because I bought a used one, so the battery life is a total unkown to me.
as for incentives, although the piece is geared toward education, it's very applicable to software because
"In general, the more cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking that is required for a task, the worse people tend to do when they have been led to perform that task for a reward."
but, the kicker is
"intrinsic motivation (an interest in the task for its own sake) is qualitatively different from extrinsic motivation"
like Joel, I see it's obvious that the good programmers have that intrinsic motivation to make software. my own addition...
the high quality of open-source software may have little (or at least) less to do with large numbers of programmers seeing the code (as Joel debunks handily), extensive de-bugging, etc. etc. the high quality may derive from the fact that open-source software is written by those people with that intrinsic motivation to write software, and not the instant-monetary-reward motivation.
there is, of course, monetary reward to be captured writing open-source software, but it seems the best projects and programs are the ones that are driven by the intrinsic motivation of its developers.
great read!
By
luke, at 11:21 AM
I like that bestpageintheuniverse guy:
"iPod: This is one of those inventions that makes people say: "why didn't I think of that?" On news shows anyway. One of the anchors on FOX News said "now the music industry is waiting for someone to come along and invent the next iPod." Wow, if only I had thought of the bright idea of putting an mp3 player on a portable hard drive. Damn that's brilliant. I had that idea years ago. I also have another idea: a car that can fly. I will sue anyone who makes it.
iPodder: A pompous ass who thinks he's eclectic. Wake up asshole: you're not living in an iPod commercial. You can't dance. Everything you listen to sucks. Get a job. "
By
Matt C, at 7:49 AM
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