Human-centred decisions
One of the (many) strange features of the coronavirus outbreak is that in many ways I feel busier than I have ever been. It is almost three weeks since I was last in my office, yet I haven’t had the time to commit my thoughts to writing.
Today the world marks the 30th birthday of the web. I could have said ‘celebrates’ instead of ‘marks’. But despite — or perhaps because of — the fact that it’s the most revolutionary advance in communications of our lifetime, the mood seems reflective rather than celebratory.
There is a stereotype about mildly panicking male shoppers wandering around shops at the last minute on Christmas Eve, not quite knowing what to buy. I learnt that such people were not always male, and some of them were rather old enough to know better than to leave things at the last minute.
About 20 years ago I watched a TV programme featuring the magician Paul Zenon. He invited the viewers to think of a card, and he said he could guess the card you were thinking of.
With Google adding its Discover feed to its famously minimalist homepage, what will stop them repeating Facebook’s mistakes?
