Whenever I see an article that cites academic research in an oversimplified, generic way, one of my hobbies is to dig into the source papers to see if those glib statements are accurate1. For example, here’s a journey through an article that states that we supposedly get approximately the same type of pleasure from talking about ourselves on social media as we do from having sex.

Having said that, naturally this paragraph from The Guardian’s The secrets of the world’s happiest cities intrigued me:

Stutzer and Frey found that a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40% more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office.

This seemed exactly like the type of sweeping statement that every journalist thinks they can get away with because really, who’s going to read a 40-page academic paper to see if it’s true? Either that, or they don’t understand the research themselves. But let’s assume they’re cunning, not stupid.

Source: xkcd

Anyway, off I went to read the Stutzer and Frey paper Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The Commuting Paradox.

To understand what the paper actually says, we need to dig into the methodology just a little bit. The authors based their study on the principle of economic equilibrium, which is “a state where economic forces such as supply and demand are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (equilibrium) values of economic variables will not change.” They apply this to an underlying mathematical model that predicts that both the monetary and the mental costs of commuting are compensated for on the labor market (higher salaries) and the housing market (lower rent).

In short, what this means is that Utility (the authors use commuters’ reported satisfaction with life as a proxy measure for individual utility) is made up of three factors in this model:

• The negative effect of spending more time commuting
• The positive effect of earning a higher salary
• The positive effect of paying less for rent

The important thing to understand is that it’s all about equilibrium. When people spend longer time commuting, they self-report lower life satisfaction (Utility in our model). So this lower satisfaction has to be offset by higher salaries and/or lower rent to keep the equation in a state of equilibrium.

Ok, now we’re ready to look at that statement again. The Guardian’s claim is derived from this section in the paper:

Before we discuss the potential explanations, we want to calculate how high the hurdle is. How far short of full compensation does the equilibrium prediction fall for people in the data set? In other words, how much additional income would a commuter have to earn in order to be as well off as somebody who does not commute?

The money quote is from this footnote:

Full compensation for commuting one hour (one way), compared with no commuting, is estimated to require an additional monthly income of approximately 515 Euro or 40 percent of the average monthly wage.

This shows us that there are two main issues with The Guardian’s quote:

1. Earning more money doesn’t increase satisfaction with life. It just compensates for the lack of satisfaction (“Utility” in the formula) caused by longer commutes. Remember, this model is about economic equilibrium. You’re still less satisfied, the additional money just makes you ok with that. To put it another way: more money doesn’t increase satisfaction, it just makes up for the lack of satisfaction caused by the longer commute. You’re not happier, you just deal with the unhappiness because you’re getting paid more.
2. It’s not “40% more money”, it’s 515 Euro, which equals 40% of the average monthly wage. For example, for commutes of 23 minutes (as opposed to one hour), that number is 242 Euros, which is equal to 18.86% of the average monthly wage.

A more accurate statement would therefore be this:

Stutzer and Frey found that a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 515 Euro more (or 40% of an average monthly wage in Germany) to compensate for the dissatisfaction caused by their long commute.

You might think that this is a storm in teacup. Why bother? So they printed a mildly inaccurate statement that most people will gloss over anyway, what’s the big deal? Well, the problem is that these things have a tendency to spread far and wide. Look at the number of retweets here:

A person w/ a 1hr commute has to earn 40% more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office http://t.co/XZoOEKPs5H

— Charles Montgomery (@thehappycity) November 10, 2013

The statement is now even further out of context. Immediately we make the connection in our brains: more money = a more satisfied life. That’s not only not what the research says, we also know it’s just not true.

That’s why I think it’s important to call this kind of inaccuracy out, and why I want to encourage us to read the academic papers behind the easy percentages that get thrown around online. I learned a great deal about different economic and happiness models from this paper. It wasn’t boring at all, and I now understand what the research actually says. I think that’s time well spent.

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1. Yes, I need to get out more. Noted. ↩

We’ve seen a lot of articles about the negative effects of social networks this year. And yes, I’ve even written a few of those. So it was refreshing to read Roxane Gay’s What Twitter does — a reflection on the positive side of social networks:

Social networking does not offer a universal panacea, but it is something far more significant than “constant self-promotion.” The bonds of this community, at least the one I have found, are sprawled and unruly, but these bonds are not merely virtual. I travel all the time and wherever I go, I meet people with whom I am acquainted online. There may be initial awkwardness, but always, always, there is familiarity. We may not know each other but we know something of each other. We are a little less alone. Sometimes, the change technology brings is simple, intimate, and still significant.

One of the main criticisms against social media is that it fosters superficial relationships. Roxane’s point is that knowing a few superficial things about someone is better than knowing nothing, because it gives you a head start on a possible friendship.

Tom Chatfield looks at the meaning and value of our time and attention in What is the real cost of your online attention? He makes the point that we are now all amateur attention economists who have to make increasingly complex decisions about how we spend our time:

We watch a 30-second ad in exchange for a video; we solicit a friend’s endorsement; we freely pour sentence after sentence, hour after hour, into status updates and stock responses. None of this depletes our bank balances. Yet its cumulative cost, while hard to quantify, affects many of those things we hope to put at the heart of a happy life: rich relationships, rewarding leisure, meaningful work, peace of mind.

What kind of attention do we deserve from those around us, or owe to them in return? What kind of attention do we ourselves deserve, or need, if we are to be ‘us’ in the fullest possible sense? These aren’t questions that even the most finely tuned popularity contest can resolve. Yet, if contentment and a sense of control are partial measures of success, many of us are selling ourselves far too cheap.

Tom Simonite wrote a very interesting investigative piece called The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It:

Wikipedia’s community built a system and resource unique in the history of civilization. It proved a worthy, perhaps fatal, match for conventional ways of building encyclopedias. But that community also constructed barriers that deter the newcomers needed to finish the job. Perhaps it was too much to expect that a crowd of Internet strangers would truly democratize knowledge. Today’s Wikipedia, even with its middling quality and poor representation of the world’s diversity, could be the best encyclopedia we will get.

The article also reminds me of one of the best episodes of Hypercritical ever, called Marked for Deletion. John Siracusa goes into a highly entertaining and informative tirade about the problems with Wikipedia, which is well worth the listen.

Nicholas Carr wrote a really interesting article on the dangers of computer automation. In All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines he weaves together stories about airline crashes and Inuit hunters to make salient points like this:

Psychologists have found that when we work with computers, we often fall victim to two cognitive ailments — complacency and bias — that can undercut our performance and lead to mistakes. Automation complacency occurs when a computer lulls us into a false sense of security. Confident that the machine will work flawlessly and handle any problem that crops up, we allow our attention to drift. We become disengaged from our work, and our awareness of what’s going on around us fades. Automation bias occurs when we place too much faith in the accuracy of the information coming through our monitors. Our trust in the software becomes so strong that we ignore or discount other information sources, including our own eyes and ears. When a computer provides incorrect or insufficient data, we remain oblivious to the error.

Carr goes to great lengths to make the argument that the automation of tasks is slowly robbing us of the ability to learn new skills. It is, in some ways, a more nuanced argument than his famous 2008 article Is Google Making Us Stupid? It’s well worth reading — even if you’re skeptical of this argument, it will definitely make you think.

I don’t know when it happened, but it seems we’ve reached a tipping point where most tech articles now take their titles out of the BuzzFeed playbook. That said, Christopher Mims’ Everything you know about Steve Jobs and design is wrong, according to one man who should know is quite interesting. His review of Hartmut Esslinger’s book Keep It Simple quotes these astute observations about design and corporate culture:

I explained that to make design a core element of Apple’s corporate strategy, it would have to be seen as a leadership issue; world-class design can’t work its way up from the bottom, watered down by the motivations and egos of every layer of management it passes through. […]

Bottom-up design never succeeds, because even good efforts by departments within such systems remain insulated within the layers of the company’s organizational structure and everything really new, courageous and potentially game-changing is destroyed by its passage through ‘the gates of rejection.’

I just got back from a week of Product Management/UX training and consulting in Tehran, Iran. I am still trying to process it all, but I consider it one of the highlights of my career. What I experienced in Iran is so different from what I expected that it feels like I’m dealing with some kind of assumption whiplash that I’ll need quite a bit of time to recover from. But I want to write down my thoughts before I forget some of it, so here goes.

I’d like to use this post to discuss both the work that we did, as well as the cultural experience. I think the best way to do that is to take it day by day and go through how my impressions were moulded through each day’s interactions. It’s a long post, but I think this is important. Because if you’re anything like I was before this trip, you have a completely wrong impression of Iran.

How it happened

I was brought over to Tehran by Sarava, the first VC fund focused on investment in technology startups in Iran. Their Founder and CEO, Said Rahmani Khezri, has a vision for the company that I can completely get behind. He finds smart entrepreneurs in Iran, and then he invests heavily in their skills to help them build up their businesses. Said recognized a big need for Product Management and UX training, so Sarava approached Flow to see if we could help.

After months of planning, and almost running out of time trying to get my visa approved, I got on a plane to Tehran on Sept 27th. Our plan was to do 4 days of training, followed by 2 days of usability testing and analysis on two of Sarava’s investments, Beeptunes (online music buying) and Digikala (Iran’s biggest e-commerce site). We also planned the trip around the UX Tehran event, so that I could deliver a talk there.

I knew it was going to be a full week, but I didn’t quite expect how intense it would be. After 6 very long days I was exhausted but exhilarated, and my mind still can’t stop spinning.

Day 1

The training was attended by about 16 people, representing 5 of Sarava’s investments. All the attendees were entrepreneurs heavily involved in their businesses, so it was a big commitment for them to take 4 days out of their work to attend this training (no pressure!).

We spent the first two days on Product Management training, discussing the details of product planning and product execution. I was quite apprehensive going into the first day. I wasn’t sure if the material would connect with people, and I was especially worried about the language barrier. But it went exceptionally well. In fact, we were miles behind after the first day, because we got completely stuck on customer journey maps. The group just didn’t want me to move on until they understood completely.

So we spent a lot of time on the nuts and bolts of customer journey maps, and then I gave them “homework” to go read a bunch of articles about it before coming back the next morning to work on their own journey maps. Here’s one team arguing passionately about their journey map:

Day 1 was my first clue that Iran is not what I expected, and that this was a very special group of people. I immediately saw that Tehran has a small but passionate startup community who are determined to move the web forward in Iran. They challenged me with their questions, and they took to the group work with more enthusiasm than most places I’ve done training. From that first day I felt privileged to be part of this movement.

That night I had dinner with some people my age (30s), and it was amazing to hear their perspectives on living in Iran. Many of the people in our course have lived abroad — London, Canada, US. But they came back because they love Iran and want to contribute to its growth.

Interestingly, none of the women I spoke to about life in Tehran feel oppressed. When men discriminate against them, they don’t take it personally. They just laugh it off as the behaviour of an uneducated, older generation. They are all highly skilled and educated, and they don’t feel any more discriminated against in Iran than they did in their corporate jobs in London or elsewhere in the world.

This generation remains extremely frustrated that the world has such a warped view of Iran, and they are determined to change this view, even if they do it one person at a time. It certainly worked on me, from the moment I stepped off the plane.

Day 2

Day 2 of our training kicked off with more work on customer journeys. I had to adjust my methods and content a bit to adapt to how the group learned. They ask a lot of questions, and take nothing at face value. It’s not that they don’t trust the material. They just want to understand how it works completely so that they can use it on their own products. Here’s a 15s video of one team discussing their journey map:

I also quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get any rest. The group has both an insatiable thirst for knowledge, as well as unlimited stamina to keep working and working and working until they’re satisfied with the result. We went from 8am to 6pm most days, and then they had homework most nights as well. No one complained, ever.

Day 3

Day 3 was another roller coaster ride of a day, starting with an unfortunate Taxi incident where we got lost and I had no idea how to communicate with the driver. I did make a vow never to take another taxi alone in Tehran.

We finished up the Product Management course in the morning, and then started on the UX course. We focused on personas and sketching for much of the day. The picture below shows some of the personas one team created - in Farsi. It’s still amazing to see these techniques applied in a language so completely foreign to my eyes and ears.

Day 4

On Day 4 we finished up the training part of the trip with lots of sketching (design studio with 6-ups to 1-ups to full page wireframes). I was left with an enormous respect for this group as they meticulously applied every step of the process to their businesses. Here’s one group’s journey from 6-ups to final sketch.

One of my many incorrect assumptions about Iran was that everyone obsesses about politics every day. I assumed people here would be fearful, constantly worrying about the government, discussing topics like nuclear weapons and sanctions, etc. Not so. Instead, what I found is normal people living in a normal city with normal problems (traffic!) and normal social life (food!).

One thing is different though. They’re not waiting. For anything. They’re not waiting for a government handout, they’re not waiting for someone to give them a good job with a good salary, they’re not waiting for education to somehow fall out of the air and hit them on the head. No. They work.

The startup culture is amazing, and the entrepreneurial spirit is strong. They find ways to learn, they find ways to build businesses, and they do it not just because they want to make money. They do it because they understand the power of technology to affect people in a positive way — perhaps more than we in the West do. Their drive doesn’t come from wanting to buy more stuff. Their drive comes from something much stronger: a desire to improve their country, and the firm belief that they have the power to do so.

Everyone I spent time with had a deep sense of urgency to them. They want to learn quickly, they want to make great products, they want the world to change their opinion of them. Their enthusiasm is contagious and inspiring.

Day 5

On Day 5 I moved from training to consulting. We started with setting up and running 4 usability tests for Beeptunes. It was so great to see the team take control and run with it. The moderator did great, the note takers did great, everyone played their parts with confidence and skill. The Beeptunes team took it in stride, even though it was hard for them, because users struggle a great deal on their site. But they’re keen to fix things, and happy to see concrete data on usability issues.

From there we drove to UX Tehran, where I spoke to about 300 people about responsive design in emerging markets. There were some challenging questions, as I’ve come to expect.

At the beginning of the week I took these types of questions quite personally, wondering if they think I’m full of it. But I quickly learned that’s not the case. It’s just part of the culture to have strong opinions and be vocal about them. And, from what I hear, complaining about things is practically a national sport in Iran — one they enjoy immensely. From traffic to sanctions to the president, they just love challenging status quo. So I should probably feel flattered that they took me seriously enough to challenge the ideas in my talk. I still have no idea if my answers were satisfactory, but the talk appears to have been well received, at least.

From there we went back to the Beeptunes office to do analysis on the usability testing data. They’re such fast learners that I didn’t have to do much except point them in the right direction. I gave some advice and answered questions about sticking points, but for the most part they went through the analysis exercise with the passion and dedication I’ve now come to expect from Iranians.

Day 6

The last work day started with an amazing breakfast at Cafe Leon. Iranian breads and cheeses, vegetable omelette, a variety of spreads… So good. And a very nice view.

After that, we sped to the office to not only run 5 usability tests on Digikala.com, but also start the analysis process. That was insane and we were all so tired by this point that I’m not sure how much progress we made. But like buddies on a battlefield, we were in it together, and our spirits remained high.

What this trip meant to me

I think above all this trip has given me a renewed drive for the work we do to try to make the web a better place. This has been a difficult year in many ways. I struggled not only with the usual demands of agency life, but also with a frustration when I look around too much and compare myself to others. And even though my passion still lies heavily on the product side, I’ve made peace with the fact that shipping your own product might not be the only way to have an impact in tech. That will probably sound like heresy to some, and I understand that because “just ship” has become such a refrain in our community. It can make those of us who spend most of our time on the product strategy and early design phases feel quite inferior.

I may not have shipped a product last week, but I know that 5 startups in Tehran are going to spend the next few weeks analysing usability test data, and transforming their companies to follow a user-centered design methodology. So I’m going to stop comparing for a second and be ok with that. Because that? That is awesome.

Yet I’m still trying to wrap my head around Iran, and it will probably take a while, because it’s a place of contradictions. The infrastructure is lacking greatly, but there are pockets of extreme modernness, sometimes in the most random places. One night we drove through rough neighbourhoods and dirt streets only to arrive at an amazing Lebanese restaurant. And that’s Tehran. There are derelict buildings everywhere, but you can suddenly turn a corner and see a modern, luxurious villa or movie theater or apartment complex. It’s all very strange.

I’ve heard enough opinions from people in Iran now to know that it is what you make of it. Those who don’t like it will leave. Others will stick around, and work to make things better. There is extreme poverty, the economy is in shambles, the government is not popular, and yet most of the people I’ve met have a positive outlook and firmly believe they have the power to improve the lives of ordinary Iranians. They are fiercely proud of their heritage and will defend it to their last breaths. (I got into lots of trouble criticising the affordances of doors in Tehran… I’m glad that’s the only negative thing I had to say!).

That attitude is a force to be reckoned with, and I enthusiastically align myself with the startup community in Tehran. They taught me a great deal about passion and perseverance, and for that I am grateful. So to my hosts at Sarava and the people of Iran I say: Mersi, Khoda hafez, and I’ll definitely be back.

There are some more photos of the trip on Flickr.

I really enjoyed this interview with Flipboard’s Marcos Weskamp about the ephemeral nature of digital design. From David Zax’s write-up, How Flipboard’s Head Designer Grapples With The Web’s Manic Pace Of Change:

Graphic design today, says Weskamp, is something like making mandalas, the ritual symbols sometimes designed by monks. Mandalas are occasionally made of soaps, sands, or powders, rendering them inherently ephemeral. Many artists do their work in the hopes of creating something lasting. The makers of mandalas, by contrast, devote hours to meticulous works of artistry that might easily be dispensed with by a gust of wind.

And so it is with web design, where the gusts of ever-changing user demand blow especially fiercely. “I don’t think it’s tragic,” says Weskamp. “It’s something you learn over the years. It’s more a way of being.”

A big thanks to Igloo for sponsoring Elezea’s RSS feed this week. Check them out!

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Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

It’s not that I didn’t always have a strong connection with my eldest daughter. It’s just that recently, as she’s running headlong into her fifth year of life, we’ve started to connect in ways I didn’t expect. For example, this weekend we spent most of early Sunday morning building Lego models together. How did that happen? How did she suddenly get into stuff I remember liking as a child?

I know everyone always talks about how quickly kids grow up. I don’t agree with that at all. Growing up takes a long time. But I do find these sudden jumps in growth quite surprising sometimes. I feel like I should be better prepared for each jump so I can catch her if she stumbles. I guess that feeling will never go away. Especially when she starts dating. Man. That’s going to be rough.

Anyway. I’m really into coffee. And this morning my wife brought the girls to our office for a visit. I made my daughter a Babycino (frothed milk + hot chocolate sprinkles), and I made myself a flat white (both pictured above). While I was making the drinks my daughter sat at the table, and asked me questions about what I’m doing and how the espresso machine works. I talked to her about coffee extraction and crema and milk steaming, thinking that would bore her to tears. But she was really into it. So I kept going and talked to her about craft and why it’s cool to take your time to learn how to do things well and how good it makes you feel when you really master something.

They left hours ago, but I’m still thinking about the brief time I had with my daughter this morning. I can’t help but feel like it was an important moment, and that I should create more of those types of moments with her. And not just with her, but with friends and colleagues too. A discussion about craft — especially if it happens around that craft — usually leads into a discussion about passion, and that easily spirals out of control to anything from a new appreciation of life to brilliant product ideas.

A big part of the joy of learning and practising a craft is the gathering of people around its edges, and the ideas that are sparked and shared as a result. We should actively create and seek out those moments of collaborative creative thinking.