

We should be paying more attention to effort per interaction. - sahillavingia
http://sahillavingia.com/blog/we-should-be-paying-more-attention-to-effort-per-interaction./

======
Shenglong
I think this is an interesting train of thought, although I doubt effort will
ever go down to zero. After all, we derive pleasure out of many things we do
which take effort. I'll often travel to meet a friend for dinner, even though
I could've eaten at home, and talked to her over voip and webcam.

I think more so, we're minimizing effort per quality of interaction - or
maximizing quality of interaction per effort.

~~~
username3
The effort would go below zero when things interact for us and we don't have
to think about sending a message or even replying to them anymore. Everyone
will know everything and won't care to do anything.

------
pinko
Lower effort per interaction is only a net win if the value of interactions
remains constant and the number of interactions doesn't scale up to compensate
for the decreased effort.

In short, my experience has been that as communication in general has gotten
easier, the average individual communication has gotten more trivial, and the
signal/noise ratio has worsened.

I'm not at all convinced it's a net win.

~~~
hammock
That's a hilariously antisocial response (no offense implied). I understand
your signal/noise argument, and that seems to me a smaller, tactical issue. On
net higher velocity of interaction is a benefit much like globalized trade is
a benefit.

edit: here's an analogy closer to home. when a good, wealth-creating startup
raises a second round of funds, diminishing marginal returns to capital means
the average capital productivity might go down, but the total product (wealth
created) tends to go up.

------
orky56
Product people are always preaching this. Every interaction should be judged
based on the return of that investment (the investment being the interaction).
If the product improves and can deliver that much better of an experience
(matching and exceeding user expectations), then that interaction is worth it.
Each interaction should be prioritized according to this ROI and then chosen
based on achieving product-market fit (PMF).

------
geeksam
Also, this appears to suffer from what I like to call the "Razor-blade
Singularity" fallacy: <http://www.economist.com/node/5624861?story_id=5624861>

------
geeksam
Effort per interaction will only be zero when interactions require no
cognitive overhead. In which case, why are we bothering with them?

