I really liked this product (used when working at Meta). What I found interesting is that it's very similar to Facebook, but it optimizes for the opposite values. While Facebook newsfeed seems to try to maximize your time scrolling, watching ads, clicking, useless notifications; Workplace was continuously suggesting changes to maximize productivity, such as "you have not interacted with this type of notifications, stop receiving them" or "this group doesn't seem interesting to you, unfollow group" or even "set a productivity block to stop receiving notifications".

Same company, probably same underlying codebase and structure, but opposite reward optimization for showing items in the news feed and maximize productivity/time spend on feed.

> Workplace was continuously suggesting changes to maximize productivity

It doesn't. It's the same auto generated timeline where the latest news will be buried under the random updated form three months ago just because the engagement on it was higher.

The rest of the controls are nice, but it's the absolute minimum they did, so I don't see why we should congratulate them for that.

Edit: Forgot the most annoying anti-feature: email notifications. Instead of sending the full text of the post you might be interested in, the email will contain three words and a link to click. Because at Facebook engagement will always trump anything useful.

I've used it at a previous job, the email not containing content was a great feature for when people (inevitably) needed to retract something. That's all I ever took it for - super easy to turn those off and just use in-app messages.

> a great feature for when people (inevitably) needed to retract something.

Ah yes. Because that's a significantly more important and more often used feature than actually reading the content

hey, it's easier to argue for attorney-client privilege for content that doesn't exist, right? :)

That speaks volumes about how they value their devs as opposed to their users, and frankly doesn't surprise me. They don't have any interest in hacking the brains of their employees . . . or perhaps they do, but in a different direction.

Speaking what might be obvious, but I would love a social media experience optimized in a similar way to this: Least amount of time & attention spent on the platform while facilitating the most in-human contact.

So far, no one has figured out a business model for that that works, unfortunately.

They optimize for their customer base.

Which are advertisers.

I'll be impressed when it recommends you logout.

"The first time I ate vegetables again I soon developed some kind of lethargy, but it was familiar, and had once been common. I realized that since I had stopped eating plants, I had not felt this at all. I thought it was just normal to eat dinner and not want to do anything for 1-2 hours? But when I only eat meat, I don’t get this. Eating plants, even just a bit, makes my stomach feel bloated— But I can eat 2lbs of steak in one sitting and feel great."

I consider myself vegetarian although not 100% strict and in the past 4/5 years I ate red meat when I wanted to try specific foods, or dishes and every single time I felt in the exact same way that the author felt when eating vegetables. When I eat red meat, I am tired, I don't sleep well, I can't exercise well and I can't concentrate. And all my (mostly) vegetarian friends feel the same way when eating red meat.

This to say that his single data point doesn't mean anything: most likely my body is not used to red meat anymore, in the same way that his is not used to vegetables anymore.

To be fair I eat everything and never feel bloated or tired afterwards. Sometimes I eat vegan for a while if I go on vacation with some vegan friends or I eat more meat for random reasons and never felt any difference. I have the feeling that when people do try to actively do something to improve their wellbeing the bode has some kind of placebos effect. You believe that eating meat is better: you feel more energetic after eating meat. You believe vegan diet is better? Same things happen. With this I am not saying that either option is equally healthy! On the contrary there is a very strong scientific evidence towards a plant based being healthier!

I am from Italy and I've never seen a house or a hotel there not having one. We have been used to use it since we are young and when speaking to other Italians abroad, the talk about "how can these people live without a bidet?" comes out a lot.

Must be tough for Italians to travel across Europe and feel like savages when using bathrooms on holidays? A bit like when I use the “hole in the ground” model of toilet in some countries I guess.

I read an interesting thread on Twitter by an engineer at Chrome. https://twitter.com/__apf__/status/1044109217903198210?s=21

This was already mentioned in the blog post:

> (However, and this is important: Google developers claim this will not actually start synchronizing your data to Google — yet. See further below.)

An awesome book is Where wizards stay up late: the origins of the internet.

We italians have Olivetti.

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this.

I'm currently holding a J1 visa sponsored by University of California Berkeley ending in March. During several discussions for possible internships starting after the end of my J1 visa, I've been asked if I can enter an internship with my visa, through a renewal or whatever, or I need to get a new sponsorship and start the procedures again.

Thanks.

Is this an academic J-1 or a non-academic J-1?

I don't know where I can find the answer to this question but I guess it's academic since I am a visiting research scholar here at UC Berkeley.

Based on my experience in almost the exact scenario (different University), you'll have to get a new visa, as I did for my internship(s).

There are a few programs under the J-1 visa. You are most likely in a long-term scholar or a short-term scholar program, and want to switch to an internship program.