project write up: coffeeshops for the people

who?

my good friend, erin garnaas-holmes, and me. 

what?

coffeeshops for the people was a resource that would help us figure out which coffeeshop was best to go to work in on any given day based on the needs of that day.

when?

we worked on this project from 2014-2015.

where?

in the coffeeshops of boston.

why?

​for better or worse, we are the coffeeshop generation. during grad school we worked in coffeeshops all the time. however, how productive we were was dependent on the amenities of the shop:

• wifi (price and speed)
  
• seating
• availability of outlets
  

on a regular basis, erin or i would genuinely (and eventually jokingly) say to each other, “i really wish i had a map that told me which coffeeshop nearby had good wifi so i could go work there for a few hours.” the coffeeshop wifi map was intended to answer that question.

how?

there are two parts of the how.

first, the data. erin and i initially collected the data manually and put it into a spreadsheet. eventually, we built a google form. he, his girlfriend rebecca, and i all have used the form to collect data. 

second, the map. i was really excited about learning mapbox and github so i built a couple of prototype maps

• this first map was a test of one type of data viz. darkness of the circle was to indicate quality of internet, dotted vs solid circle ring was for whether the internet was free or not.
• the second map was just icon based location markers but i figured out how to get the data to populate onto a sidebar. i think i was following this tutorial [link coming someday], but then my master’s thesis happened and i dropped everything i was doing, heh.

what’s left to do?

• build a dynamic form so a contributor knows how much data they need to collect and add. if the chairs have been counted already, they just need to do an internet speed check.
• an alternative to the form… we had the crazy idea of creating a desktop or phone app that would help automate some of the data collection (like running the internet speed check). however, some of the data would likely always need to be gathered manually (like number of seats and access to outlets), but the app could still support that data gathering.
  
• make a functioning map that (a) visualizes the data well, (b) connects to the crowdsourced spreadsheet, and © has filters and can bring in multiple data points to create a ranking of shops based on specific metrics of interest to a user. (example of varying need: today, i have a big group of people who need to meet in the morning; i need a coffeeshop with lots of seats and cheap coffee. tomorrow, i will be working solo and don’t actually need good internet, but i’d love to be able to drink coffee and sit outside to write).
• add in more useful metrics: coffee prices, overall food prices, availability of outdoor seating, other things?

other assets

• sketches ([links coming some day…])
• notes ([photos coming some day…])

on the question:” what do you do?”

what do you do?

“what do you do?” this question is like an invasive weed. it’s everywhere and SO annoying. after asking for someone’s name, it’s usually one of the first questions that gets asked.

the question bothers me because it shows just how much we (middle-class americans) identify ourselves by our work. your job and social value are indicated by what you do to earn money. the worst part is that the question isn’t as explicit as that, but everyone knows what it means. it actually has lots of potential as a broader question. and yet, i can count on two hands the number of times someone has answered that question without telling me what they do to earn money.

although i don’t think identifying strongly with work as our primary identity has ever been a good idea (#industrialcapitalism), as our economy evolves, i think we absolutely have to get away from this pattern.

so, i’m developing alternatives to this question.

i think i’ll build a tool for it (probably something like this). in the meantime, here are some of my favorites.

• what’s your favorite way to spend time these days?
• if you had one more hour to live, what would you do?
• what are you dreaming about these days?
• what’s your story? [this question comes in 5, 10, 20, and entire-evening varieties]
• if you had to die tomorrow, how would you choose to go and why?
• are you a sprinter or marathoner? [this one came from a recent piece i wrote]

in general, i hate shallow conversation and small talk. so these questions are an attempt to get beyond those things. life is short. go deep or go home.

on drift

ok. this might be the last post inspired by gretchen rubin’s interview on design matters.

i’ve noticed (as have many others) that many americans move through life in a strange state of conscious unconsciousness. this shows up in many ways, but here’s just one example. (middle class) american children are often raised to:

1. do well in high school,
2. go to college,
3. find high-paying work,
4. find a partner,
5. get married,
6. by a house,
7. have 1-2 kids,
8. retire,
9. die.

people make conscious decisions along this prescribed pathway. sometimes they even stop to think really critically about the choices. but they generally don’t stop to question the entire pathway.

sometimes it looks like being a doctor because that’s what your parents did. or going to law school because you like arguing and writing. maybe you did a ton of research about which medical school to attend, but never stopping to ask, “why do i really want to be a doctor? do i even want to be a doctor?” this lack of radical (as in looking at the roots) questioning is what gretchen calls drift and i have called societal inertia.

gretchen’s interview added a point i’ve never really thought about but is so accurate. the thing about drift is that it’s not actually that easy. in fact, drifting through life might actually make it harder. for example, i can’t tell you how many medical and law students i’ve met who actually don’t want to be doctors or lawyers. i also can’t tell you how many people i know who attend college for a specific subject and never work in that field (there are many other issues that contribute to that specific problem, but drift is definitely a fundamental one). drifting, despite it’s lack of mindfulness, doesn’t mean that the pathway is easy. unfortunately, people put in a lot of work to do things and get to places they don’t actually want to be.

a book I used to love (i think by christian pastor, rob bell) had a serious chunk all about how the momentum given to us by our parents finally runs out during or right after college and then people are like… wait wtf am i doing? so true. can’t even tell you how many people i have run into over my college years for whom that is the story. the worst part is it’s actually the story for many, many more, but some people haven’t actually realized that that’s their story yet. some are even in denial of it. =[

what i’m curious about is this: what if taking time to be intentional about life choices makes things easier? i have a strong hunch that finding out what you’re passionate about and doing that makes life go much more smoothly (and it’s also better for everyone else).

hm.

maximizing your happiness range

the gretchen rubin design matters podcast episode was really a gold mine. i’m putting her work on my reading list today. 

as gretchen explained her happiness project, she mentioned a framework that essentially sounds like a happiness range. it sounded like the premise was this: everyone’s happiness can be measured on scale from 1-10. maybe she’s made a test for this, maybe it came from somewhere else, maybe there’s nothing; i couldn’t really tell.

either way, the most interesting part of her thinking was that everyone has a natural happiness resting state and a range. so, for example, maybe my resting state of happiness is 7, but my full range might be 6-9. i might never be a 10, there are practical things i can do to keep me closer to 9. there are also things i can do that keep me closer to 6.

those things are my habits.

now, i can’t remember if this next conceptual leap was hers or mine, but either way, it’s important (i think).

humans are stasis machines (there’s an episode of onbeing about this, but i can’t find it…). we are incredible at returning to a balance point. there are many studies showing that even when traumatic things happen, the impact those events have on people’s happiness over time doesn’t last (when i find that episode, i’ll find the referenced studies). even from deaths in the family, major injuries, and worse, people return to their original state of happiness after a surprisingly short amount of time. crazy, right?

ok. last conceptual leap before tying it all together. in this other post, i wrote about gretchen’s thinking on how a surprising consistency among highly functioning was good habits. this was surprising because the researcher’s hypothesis was that high-functioning people would stand apart because of strong self-control. turns out, those people actually exert less than the average person on a daily basis. :O

all of this evidence points to one conclusion (and these are gretchen’s words): what’s really important is what you do all the time, not what you do every once in a while.

the implications on happiness of this are really profound (and also zen in simplicity). it means that if you’re not regularly doing things that support your well-being and happiness, you’re unlikely to just arrive in a happy place someday.

this means that saving up all your vacation time so that you can have an awesome two week trip isn’t going to make you happier. the joy or happiness from that trip will fade because that’s how humans work.*

this also means that owning that perfect house in your dream location with a great family isn’t going to make you much happier in the long run. it’s way more important to have daily habits and practices that help you live a good life day to day.

and in a way, that’s pretty freeing, actually. cool stuff. thank you, gretchen!

* of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take vacations and there are many good reasons to do so. just don’t list happiness as one of them.

turns out, high functioning people don’t rely much on self-control

yet another interesting point in gretchen rubin’s interview on design matters was a surprising bit of research.

she mentioned a study that was aimed at finding out what made high-functioning people different from average people. the hypothesis: high functioning people exert more self-control daily than everyone else.

the findings, however, debunked that completely. turns out, high-functioning people actually exert less self-control daily than everyone else. the reason? habits!

gretchen went on to explain that the research showed people who were highly productive simply set their lives up to enable them to be productive. they removed as many decisions as possible from their day. this allowed them to do two things:

1. keep doing things that are good for them, even if they didn’t actively want to do them at the moment (for example, exercise).
2. save their decision-making energy for truly important things

in the research, the energy spent by the average person debating (i.e. what they’re going to eat, if they’re going to go to the gym, when they’re going to get a haircut, etc.) takes away energy from actually getting stuff done. of course, not to mention the fact that you may often decide to not do things that are good for you because you just aren’t feeling it that day. in the long-run, that adds up.

this all lines up really well with many different lines of thinking i’ve been having lately, but most directly it lines up with the cognitive budgets stuff. cool.