Optimization also turns into a problem when you're not in the target audience for that optimization. I work nights, and it seems like the whole world is built around school schedules and daytime jobs, and I constantly have to sacrifice my sleep for everything from therapy to birthday parties.
One of the basic results that pedagogical research has shown over and over is that friction is necessary for learning. A student cannot learn about a subject (at least not in a substantial and lasting way) if they don't first struggle with that subject. Of course this doesn't mean that all friction is desirable, but it does mean that a state of no friction is undesirable.
Another problem with hyper-optimization that Dr. K over at healthy gamer talks about: it closes off roads for beginners. If everything is super optimized then beginners (young people mostly) have their chances cut off (because the work that they could do in the beginning is sub-optimal).
0:41 YES. I don’t want every single platform to look the same. It’s why YT shorts removing the dislike button and turning the like into a heart that’s even the same color as TikTok bugs me to no end. I use shorts because I DONT LIKE TIKTOK. Stop turning your platform into your competitor’s YouTube!
I had a recent thought about technology that basically boiled down to “people don’t want new digital tech, they want better analog tech.”, and I feel like it’s kinda in the same vein.
I think one of the core things people mess up about optimization is that there is no such thing as 'The Optimization'. To optimize you have to select for criteria you are optimizing for. You will ALWAYS be sacrificing other criteria for your target criteria, and the more you optimize, the lower your return for those sacrifices. A LOT of tech especially, but businesses and the modern world is currently suffering from optimizing for a single selection criteria too strongly.
When a video game gets a new major update, it is often buggy and not polished. Some of the most fun is abusing those unpolished areas before they are fixed.
In the Factorio subreddit, new players are urged not to learn from experienced Factorio players nor learn any meta, until they've won the game at least once.
On there and its less serious subreddit Factoriohno, experienced players are envious of how weirdly and creatively new players can design things that still basically work.
I see this in movies. People say “movies suck these days” which is partly that they are often so optimized for everyone that it’s not as good for anyone
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Like elevator music
On there and its less serious subreddit Factoriohno, experienced players are envious of how weirdly and creatively new players can design things that still basically work.