Note by @fastfinge

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

There has to be a better system than windows and tabs for doing work on a computer. I don't know what it is, but there has to be something. I always end up with fifteen windows with 30 tabs each over two or three virtual desktops, and then can't find anything. Maybe the bad idea wasn't AI; maybe the bad idea was multi-tasking operating systems. Wouldn't life be better if all of our computers were single-user and single-threaded? No more losing windows and tabs! No more background notifications interrupting us every seven seconds! Just sit down, start a task, finish the task, then do something else. The human brain can only effectively do one task at a time. So we should force our computers to work the same way.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@fastfinge @alexchapman I disagree. On mobile it is often very annoying having no multi-tasking, because it makes referring to data from multiple applications at once harder (like comparing activity between different banking apps), as well as moving data from one application to another, like doing research from a book and writing an essay in another document. Especially since on mobile, focus is not maintained between apps, so if you have a webpage or a book open and switch to something else, you have to find your place again after switching back. I think there could be something better than windows and tabs (I agree Emacs buffers are better), but getting rid of multi-tasking is not the solution.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@emassey0135 @alexchapman Sure it is. Take notes in Braille while in your first app, then when you have the notes you need, move to the second app. There's never any reason anyone needs any more than a single app open at one time.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@fastfinge @alexchapman But taking notes in Braille is effectively just like having another device. I do often use Braille Access on iOS for exactly what you describe, but that is essentially opening another app on top of your current one and then dismissing it, so it is a form of multi-tasking. And if taking notes in Braille is like using a second device, then other common things people do with multi-tasking could be done with multiple computers too. But then why not just do everything on the same computer and save the desk space when computers are capable of that? Also, there is utility in notifications that you couldn't get with this single-tasking model, except by checking your email and messages very often, which is very inconvenient and is way more distracting than notifications.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@emassey0135 @alexchapman Notifications are way too distracting. They've also poisoned society with the idea that everyone should always be available, at all times. If we had no notifications, everyone would just check email and social media once a day. Life would be much better all around! There is literally nothing that happens on the internet that you need to know about instantly. It can all wait 24-48 hours.

Alex Chapman @alexchapman@vee.seedy.cc

@fastfinge @emassey0135 Unless a server goes pew pew, that can't wait 24 or 48 hours, or if a friend or family member is sick, that certainly can't wait that long. There are two examples of where notifications are actually useful.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@alexchapman @fastfinge Also for package deliveries; if you are expecting an item to be delivered soon, and are very excited about it or worried about thieves potentially stealing it, notifications decrease your anxiety because you don't have to keep checking delivery status and you can do whatever you are doing without thinking about the delivery. In addition, when you are texting a friend and you have different schedules or are doing things that vary where how busy you are varies a lot, you can just send a message and do something else, and not have to check if the other person responded. This enables conversations more frequent than every 24-48 hours, but that do not take up large contiguous blocks of time like phone calls.

Andre Louis @FreakyFwoof@universeodon.com

@emassey0135 @alexchapman @fastfinge I require music while I work. If multitasking wasn't a thing, I couldn't have foobar do that through my headphones while working or reading, lessening my enjoyment.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@FreakyFwoof @emassey0135 @alexchapman The radio would still exist, though.

Andre Louis @FreakyFwoof@universeodon.com

@fastfinge @emassey0135 @alexchapman So now I have to have a confluence of wires and headphone splitters for somethign I can already do now?
Also, screen-readers. We did manage this in DOS with TSR (terminate and stay resident) but honestly, going back to that these days? Folly.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@FreakyFwoof @emassey0135 @alexchapman You probably already have a mixer with a bunch of devices on it. Heck, even I do and I’m not an audio guy. Because having a single device playing multiple audio streams kind of sucks. Multiple devices and a mixer makes adjusting the volume of each thing, with actual physical mobs and sliders, way easier.

Andre Louis @FreakyFwoof@universeodon.com

@fastfinge @emassey0135 @alexchapman Until you're in a hotel or on a train working between home and remote and still need music to play. That only solves it for me, not for run of the mill people that also like their music, and right now can play it in-browser, in their media player of choice, etc.

Of course this will never happen now anyway unless you want to go live in DOSBox but hey.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@FreakyFwoof @emassey0135 @alexchapman You could argue that if people instead had to engage with the world around them while traveling, all of society would be better off. And my point isn’t so much that we can actually do this. Just that the things like notification spam and the 24 hour workday are already destroying humanity. The effect of things like AI and crypto are pretty much zero in comparison. If we could be saved it’d require a lot more than banning some random technology as a scapegoat. It’d take a complete rethink of how computers and phones work.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@emassey0135 @alexchapman But phoning friends and actually talking to them is far better for your mental health.

Matt Campbell @matt@toot.cafe

@fastfinge Maybe voice conversations with friends are better for some people's mental health, but not necessarily for everyone. And doing text chat with customer service is probably better for mental health on average.

Multitasking can have bad effects, but it also has its benefits, and it's never going away anyway.

@emassey0135 @alexchapman

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@matt @emassey0135 @alexchapman Customer support is bad for mental health because companies make it that way on purpose. If I’m going to sit on hold for 2 hours I’d rather just send an email.

aedan @aedan@serrebiradio.com

@fastfinge @matt @emassey0135 @alexchapman my bank just switched from a nice system with smart links for each type of help to call and not have to verify to a chat bot I hope stays accessible, phone systems can work with landlines and computers, now that virtual jobs are an easier thing more people should be able to work less for good money and save all mental health

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@aedan @matt @emassey0135 @alexchapman That’ll never happen in capitalism. Fewer people will just be expected to work harder for less money.

Alex Chapman @alexchapman@vee.seedy.cc

@fastfinge My mental health is perfectly fine even with notifications, I guess I’m one of those that doesn’t get any negative effects of it. @emassey0135

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@alexchapman @emassey0135 It probably has a lot to do with what you do for work.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@fastfinge @alexchapman I do sometimes turn on do not disturb when I'm working on something I need to concentrate deeply on, and also when I'm in class I have it on. So that's a fair point.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@fastfinge @alexchapman I agree that phone calls with friends are a good thing and that you are missing out if you only text. However, if I have to choose between a phone call every two weeks or every month, and that plus texting in between, I would definitely choose the latter. Or even if it was a shorter phone call every week or that plus texts I would choose the latter, because that is more contact than the phone call alone, and more opportunity for communication. Also for package notifications, do I really want my phone to ring loudly, and then have to take a call where I might be in class or walking around, just to hear that my package was delivered, which I could have found out in 5 seconds with a notification and no disturbance?

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@emassey0135 @alexchapman If you’re not at home, why do you need to know your package was delivered at all? You can’t do anything about it! If you are at home, they can ring the doorbell.

Elijah Massey @emassey0135@caneandable.social

@fastfinge @alexchapman If you're not at home, knowing that your package was delivered can cause you to check the porch when getting home or whereever packages are delivered, instead of going inside and then going back out again, or checking every single time needlessly. If you live in an apartment, often there is no doorbell, and packages may be delivered to the office and not your actual apartment, so you need to know to walk down to the office and get it. I suppose email would work for that though.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@emassey0135 @alexchapman It would. If I don’t need to, or can’t, take action in the next 60 seconds, a notification is just spam.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

@alexchapman @emassey0135 Both of those should already be phone calls though.