how much is too much? // Feb 17, 03:46 PM

In Be Careful with Defaults, James Duncan Davidson writes about how the weather widget on his freshly installed system picked up “Portland” as his location upon being first invoked. The temperature discrepancy led him to realize that the widget assumed the location to be Portland, Maine, not Portland, Oregon even though it got the name of the city right. This banal occurrence, while not significant in and of itself, is very curious to me in a metaphysically, speculatively, culturally anthropological sense.

Just recently, I was in a local dollar store looking for a birthday card. Although I enjoy designing and printing cards sent to my family and friends, I was making an exception. Despite a wall full of cards for every conceivable significant person on every conceivable significant occasion, I couldn’t find an appropriate card. Sounds familiar?

This episode only reminded me of an identical one when my friend was looking for a Christmas card to send to his thesis supervisor upon successfully completing his degree. Having taken place in a local Walmart Supercenter, where they have 60 foot long walls of cards, this one was more tragicomic. Why is it impossible to find a blank holiday card (repeat: blank holiday card) in the sea of “blessings for heavenly and joyous occasions from the person who will always love you”? (I paraphrase) I think I sense a potential business model here…

There is an obvious guiding principle evident in the work of people who do sound interactive design (e.g. 1, 2, 3), namely minimize the amount of work needed to accomplish a task. This comes as no surprise since software is complicated. It is too much (cognitive) work.

While these virtual examples do not relate directly to our physical world, I wonder if we have taken the desire for less work a bit too far in the brick and mortar world. While I’m okay with bread that’s cut into slices for me, door that automatically open when I walk through, and so on, I wonder if holiday cards I don’t need to write, just sign, are any good for me.

Prospective employers rightfully frown on mass-mailed applicatios, résumés and cover letters which utterly ignore the context. I wonder how my mom feels while reading a card that Hallmark mass-wrote for me?

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