Episode 28: Disconnecting - find your premium

Fireside Chats with Empathic Futures Lab

At Empathic Futures Lab, we often put technology on a pedestal. This episode's discussion is about stepping back and trying to figure out how to get away from technology when we feel the need to. Colter is back with us as well this week.

The episode starts off with Colter discussing this time in a sensory deprivation tank and what that experience meant to him and how he thought about "being." We then discuss how we can build off of cheaper or easier DIY solutions for that. Is there a difference between consuming vs producing in terms of overload?

We then discuss why offices and coffee shops are different in terms of production? Often times, it seems we enjoy working in coffee shops more than offices... How does out attention work and how can we plan for that in terms of which environments we live and work in? Is this large number of distractions a problem for us as humans?

We then discuss who is best able to fix the issues? Is it the technologists themselves or our public servants or someone else? Do we needs apps to mitigate our app overload?

We then discuss Front Porch Forum, its article on the Verge, linked below, and how it gives an example of how perhaps apps can be beneficial to the larger community...though by perhaps forgoing revenue streams to do so.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/24/18129437/front-porch-forum-vermont-social-network-listserv-local-online-community

This leads to a discussion on what is "premium" engagement? What does it mean online and what does it mean as an "environment?"

Colter brings up Sea Ranch as an example of a "premium" environment: https://www.google.com/search?q=sea+ranch&rlz=1C1MSIM_enUS651US651&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL9u7l4LjgAhWL5IMKHQUUCeAQ_AUIDygC&biw=1920&bih=938

We end on a thought that Colter brings up: "How do you make good design high volume, low margin"?

Trickle up design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yCh4_5i_5o