From: tnp@invalid.invalid   
      
   On 23/12/2025 23:23, John Ames wrote:   
   > I mean, it's*both*  - a continuation of a long-established pattern   
   > in our society*and*  a bad thing. The fact that someone out there   
   > excuses it as rational self-interest* (and may even be factually   
   > correct) does not make it cool; abusive design patterns are bad, and   
   > those who employ them knowingly are *bad people.* They should feel   
   > ashamed of themselves and their mothers should all call to tell them   
   > that they're very dis- appointed and had hoped they raised them   
   > better than this.   
   >   
   There is a concept from the depths of industrial analysis, known as   
   'time span of discretion'.   
      
   More or less being a measure of how long a timescale a man takes into   
   account when making a decision.   
      
   On the factory shop  floor, it is measured in hours. At board level one   
   hopes it is years.   
      
   In politics it is seldom further then the next election.   
      
      
   > * (And as Doctorow has brought up in his writing on   
   > "enshittification," it's often self-defeating in the long run - you   
   > win temporary gains, but your thing is much worse and once someone   
   > comes along with a less awful alternative, people will abandon you -   
   > and rightfully so.)   
      
   Exactly. But it is part of 'Old Harry's Game'  - the moment something   
   with social traction appears, the race to control it and subvert it begins.   
      
   Once its dead and rotten and starting to smell, the cycle is complete...   
      
      
   --   
   Any fool can believe in principles -  and most of them do!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)