0:00:01.863,0:00:05.553
What does it mean to spend our time well?

0:00:08.111,0:00:09.982
I spend a lot of my time

0:00:10.463,0:00:13.616
thinking about how to spend my time.

0:00:14.914,0:00:17.201
Probably too much --[br]I probably obsess over it.

0:00:17.225,0:00:18.670
My friends think I do.

0:00:18.694,0:00:23.181
But I feel like I kind of have to,[br]because these days,

0:00:23.205,0:00:27.086
it feels like little bits of my time[br]kind of slip away from me,

0:00:27.110,0:00:31.628
and when that happens, it feels like[br]parts of my life are slipping away.

0:00:33.086,0:00:34.237
Specifically,

0:00:34.261,0:00:37.110
it feels like little bits[br]of my time get slipped away

0:00:37.134,0:00:38.738
to various things like this,

0:00:38.762,0:00:40.729
like technology -- I check things.

0:00:41.515,0:00:42.804
I'll give you an example.

0:00:43.586,0:00:45.577
If this email shows up --

0:00:45.601,0:00:48.286
how many of you have gotten[br]an email like this, right?

0:00:48.310,0:00:50.608
I've been tagged in a photo.

0:00:51.684,0:00:53.487
When this appears,

0:00:53.511,0:00:56.922
I can't help but click on it right now.

0:00:56.946,0:00:59.487
Right? Because, like,[br]what if it's a bad photo?

0:00:59.511,0:01:01.216
So I have to click it right now.

0:01:01.582,0:01:04.029
But I'm not just going[br]to click "See photo,"

0:01:04.053,0:01:06.951
what I'm actually going to do[br]is spend the next 20 minutes.

0:01:06.975,0:01:08.152
(Laughter)

0:01:08.176,0:01:12.213
But the worst part is that I know[br]this is what's going to happen,

0:01:12.237,0:01:15.682
and even knowing[br]that's what's going to happen

0:01:15.706,0:01:18.522
doesn't stop me[br]from doing it again the next time.

0:01:19.871,0:01:22.633
Or I find myself in a situation like this,

0:01:24.097,0:01:27.671
where I check my email[br]and I pull down to refresh,

0:01:29.164,0:01:32.515
But the thing is that 60 seconds later,

0:01:32.539,0:01:35.670
I'll pull down to refresh again.

0:01:38.145,0:01:39.947
Why am I doing this?

0:01:39.971,0:01:41.779
This doesn't make any sense.

0:01:43.010,0:01:46.508
But I'll give you a hint[br]why this is happening.

0:01:48.357,0:01:52.865
What do you think makes[br]more money in the United States

0:01:53.547,0:01:59.221
than movies, game parks[br]and baseball combined?

0:02:01.742,0:02:02.983
Slot machines.

0:02:05.195,0:02:07.892
How can slot machines make all this money

0:02:08.799,0:02:13.583
when we play with such small[br]amounts of money?

0:02:14.022,0:02:15.680
We play with coins.

0:02:15.704,0:02:16.979
How is this possible?

0:02:18.137,0:02:20.082
Well, the thing is ...

0:02:21.490,0:02:24.575
my phone is a slot machine.

0:02:25.809,0:02:27.797
Every time I check my phone,

0:02:27.821,0:02:30.138
I'm playing the slot machine to see,

0:02:30.162,0:02:31.354
what am I going to get?

0:02:31.925,0:02:33.085
What am I going to get?

0:02:33.109,0:02:34.950
Every time I check my email,

0:02:34.974,0:02:36.426
I'm playing the slot machine,

0:02:36.450,0:02:38.061
saying, "What am I going to get?"

0:02:38.085,0:02:40.806
Every time I scroll a news feed,

0:02:41.334,0:02:43.276
I'm playing the slot machine to see,

0:02:43.300,0:02:44.882
what am I going to get next?

0:02:46.346,0:02:47.497
And the thing is that,

0:02:47.521,0:02:50.613
again, knowing exactly[br]how this works -- and I'm a designer,

0:02:50.637,0:02:52.914
I know exactly how[br]the psychology of this works,

0:02:52.938,0:02:54.793
I know exactly what's going on --

0:02:54.817,0:02:57.059
but it doesn't leave me with any choice,

0:02:57.083,0:02:59.134
I still just get sucked into it.

0:03:00.173,0:03:01.983
So what are we going to do?

0:03:02.991,0:03:06.012
Because it leaves us[br]with this all-or-nothing relationship

0:03:06.036,0:03:07.516
with technology, right?

0:03:08.478,0:03:10.016
You're either on,

0:03:10.510,0:03:12.885
and you're connected[br]and distracted all the time,

0:03:12.909,0:03:14.759
or you're off,

0:03:14.783,0:03:16.037
but then you're wondering,

0:03:16.061,0:03:17.686
am I missing something important?

0:03:18.352,0:03:20.606
In other words, you're either distracted

0:03:21.443,0:03:23.504
or you have fear of missing out.

0:03:24.363,0:03:25.520
Right?

0:03:26.822,0:03:30.924
So we need to restore choice.

0:03:31.942,0:03:34.462
We want to have[br]a relationship with technology

0:03:34.486,0:03:38.692
that gives us back choice[br]about how we spend time with it,

0:03:38.716,0:03:41.773
and we're going to need[br]help from designers,

0:03:42.662,0:03:45.467
because knowing this stuff doesn't help.

0:03:45.491,0:03:47.543
We're going to need design help.

0:03:47.567,0:03:49.494
So what would that look like?

0:03:50.656,0:03:53.463
So let's take an example that we all face:

0:03:53.487,0:03:55.533
chat -- text messaging.

0:03:56.089,0:03:57.666
So let's say there's two people.

0:03:57.690,0:04:00.846
Nancy's on the left[br]and she's working on a document,

0:04:00.870,0:04:02.077
and John's on the right.

0:04:02.669,0:04:04.306
And John suddenly remembers,

0:04:04.330,0:04:07.933
"I need to ask Nancy[br]for that document before I forget."

0:04:10.291,0:04:11.958
So when he sends her that message,

0:04:11.982,0:04:14.068
it blows away her attention.

0:04:15.436,0:04:18.844
That's what we're doing all the time,[br]bulldozing each other's attention,

0:04:18.868,0:04:20.282
left and right.

0:04:20.306,0:04:22.072
And there's serious cost to this,

0:04:22.534,0:04:25.165
because every time[br]we interrupt each other,

0:04:26.729,0:04:29.976
it takes us about 23 minutes, on average,

0:04:30.000,0:04:31.840
to refocus our attention.

0:04:31.864,0:04:35.212
We actually cycle through[br]two different projects

0:04:35.236,0:04:37.945
before we come back[br]to the original thing we were doing.

0:04:38.806,0:04:43.147
This is Gloria Mark's research[br]combined with Microsoft research,

0:04:43.171,0:04:44.529
that showed this.

0:04:44.553,0:04:48.508
And her research also shows[br]that it actually trains bad habits.

0:04:48.532,0:04:50.977
The more interruptions we get externally,

0:04:51.482,0:04:55.762
it's conditioning and training us[br]to interrupt ourselves.

0:04:56.303,0:04:59.883
We actually self-interrupt[br]every three-and-a-half minutes.

0:05:01.176,0:05:02.327
This is crazy.

0:05:02.351,0:05:03.652
So how do we fix this?

0:05:03.676,0:05:06.926
Because Nancy and John are in this[br]all-or-nothing relationship.

0:05:06.950,0:05:08.451
Nancy might want to disconnect,

0:05:08.475,0:05:09.828
but then she'd be worried:

0:05:09.852,0:05:11.903
What if I'm missing something important?

0:05:12.296,0:05:14.259
Design can fix this problem.

0:05:15.311,0:05:17.344
Let's say you have[br]Nancy again on the left,

0:05:17.368,0:05:18.540
John on the right.

0:05:18.564,0:05:21.255
And John remembers,[br]"I need to send Nancy that document."

0:05:21.279,0:05:22.508
Except this time,

0:05:22.532,0:05:24.469
Nancy can mark that she's focused.

0:05:24.493,0:05:26.461
Let's say she drags a slider and says,

0:05:26.485,0:05:28.408
"I want to be focused for 30 minutes,"

0:05:28.432,0:05:29.867
so -- bam -- she's focused.

0:05:30.771,0:05:33.391
Now when John wants to message her,

0:05:33.415,0:05:35.542
he can get the thought off of his mind --

0:05:35.566,0:05:37.639
because he has a need,[br]he has this thought,

0:05:37.663,0:05:40.090
and he needs to dump it out[br]before he forgets.

0:05:40.744,0:05:42.266
Except this time,

0:05:42.290,0:05:46.594
it holds the messages[br]so that Nancy can still focus,

0:05:46.618,0:05:49.161
but John can get the thought[br]off of his mind.

0:05:50.875,0:05:54.074
But this only works[br]if one last thing is true,

0:05:54.098,0:05:58.584
which is that Nancy needs to know[br]that if something is truly important,

0:05:59.564,0:06:01.242
John can still interrupt.

0:06:04.158,0:06:08.271
But instead of having constant[br]accidental or mindless interruptions,

0:06:08.295,0:06:10.977
we're now only creating[br]conscious interruptions,

0:06:12.985,0:06:14.506
So we're doing two things here.

0:06:14.530,0:06:17.632
We're creating a new choice[br]for both Nancy and John,

0:06:18.436,0:06:21.242
But there's a second, subtle thing[br]we're doing here, too.

0:06:22.022,0:06:25.151
And it's that we're changing[br]the question we're answering.

0:06:25.922,0:06:28.910
Instead of the goal of chat being:

0:06:30.056,0:06:33.253
"Let's design it so it's easy[br]to send a message" --

0:06:33.277,0:06:34.707
that's the goal of chat,

0:06:34.731,0:06:37.426
it should be really easy to send[br]a message to someone --

0:06:37.808,0:06:40.888
we change the goal to something[br]deeper and a human value,

0:06:40.912,0:06:45.116
which is: "Let's create the highest[br]possible quality communication

0:06:45.140,0:06:47.623
in a relationship between two people.

0:06:48.162,0:06:50.027
So we upgraded the goal.

0:06:51.832,0:06:54.643
Now, do designers[br]actually care about this?

0:06:54.667,0:06:59.696
Do we want to have conversations[br]about what these deeper human goals are?

0:07:00.538,0:07:02.297
Well, I'll tell you one story.

0:07:02.321,0:07:05.391
A little over a year ago,

0:07:05.415,0:07:08.495
I got to help organize a meeting

0:07:08.519,0:07:13.391
between some of technology's leading[br]designers and Thich Nhat Hanh.

0:07:14.297,0:07:19.134
Thich Nhat Hanh is an international[br]spokesperson for mindfulness meditation.

0:07:19.158,0:07:20.909
And it was the most amazing meeting.

0:07:20.933,0:07:22.953
You have to imagine -- picture a room --

0:07:22.977,0:07:26.830
on one side of the room,[br]you have a bunch of tech geeks;

0:07:26.854,0:07:28.350
on the other side of the room,

0:07:28.374,0:07:33.355
you have a bunch of long brown robes,[br]shaved heads, Buddhist monks.

0:07:34.442,0:07:37.673
And the questions were about[br]the deepest human values,

0:07:37.697,0:07:40.015
like what does the future[br]of technology look like

0:07:40.039,0:07:42.254
when you're designing[br]for the deepest questions

0:07:42.278,0:07:43.761
and the deepest human values?

0:07:44.445,0:07:48.135
And our conversation centered[br]on listening more deeply

0:07:48.159,0:07:50.087
to what those values might be.

0:07:50.929,0:07:52.636
He joked in our conversation

0:07:52.660,0:07:54.608
that what if, instead of a spell check,

0:07:55.551,0:07:57.582
you had a compassion check,

0:07:57.606,0:08:01.969
meaning, you might highlight a word[br]that might be accidentally abrasive --

0:08:01.993,0:08:03.907
perceived as abrasive by someone else.

0:08:04.844,0:08:08.815
So does this kind of conversation[br]happen in the real world,

0:08:08.839,0:08:10.961
not just in these design meetings?

0:08:11.917,0:08:13.092
Well, the answer is yes,

0:08:13.116,0:08:15.413
and one of my favorites is Couchsurfing.

0:08:16.413,0:08:18.866
If you didn't know,[br]Couchsurfing is a website

0:08:18.890,0:08:22.775
that matches people[br]who are looking for a place to stay

0:08:22.799,0:08:25.670
with a free couch, from someone[br]who's trying to offer it.

0:08:26.185,0:08:27.728
So, great service --

0:08:27.752,0:08:29.416
what would their design goal be?

0:08:29.440,0:08:32.187
What are you designing[br]for if you work at Couchsurfing?

0:08:32.211,0:08:36.735
Well, you would think[br]it's to match guests with hosts.

0:08:37.589,0:08:38.739
Right?

0:08:38.763,0:08:40.018
That's a pretty good goal.

0:08:40.042,0:08:42.961
But that would kind of be like[br]our goal with messaging before,

0:08:42.985,0:08:45.350
where we're just trying[br]to deliver a message.

0:08:45.374,0:08:47.516
So what's the deeper, human goal?

0:08:48.175,0:08:50.120
Well, they set their goal

0:08:50.144,0:08:55.798
as the need to create lasting,[br]positive experiences and relationships

0:08:55.822,0:08:57.981
between people who've never met before.

0:08:59.343,0:09:01.926
And the most amazing thing[br]about this was in 2007,

0:09:01.950,0:09:04.591
they introduced a way to measure this,

0:09:04.615,0:09:06.066
which is incredible.

0:09:06.090,0:09:07.397
I'll tell you how it works.

0:09:07.421,0:09:08.968
For every design goal you have,

0:09:08.992,0:09:11.060
you have to have[br]a corresponding measurement

0:09:11.084,0:09:12.633
to know how you're doing --

0:09:12.657,0:09:13.992
a way of measuring success.

0:09:14.016,0:09:15.312
So what they do is,

0:09:15.336,0:09:17.779
let's say you take two people who meet up,

0:09:20.120,0:09:23.765
and they take the number of days[br]those two people spent together,

0:09:25.010,0:09:28.480
and then they estimate how many[br]hours were in those days --

0:09:29.136,0:09:31.953
how many hours did[br]those two people spend together?

0:09:31.977,0:09:34.112
And then after they spend[br]that time together,

0:09:34.136,0:09:35.326
they ask both of them:

0:09:35.350,0:09:37.308
How positive was your experience?

0:09:37.332,0:09:40.381
Did you have a good experience[br]with this person that you met?

0:09:40.952,0:09:44.322
And they subtract[br]from those positive hours

0:09:44.346,0:09:47.663
the amount of time[br]people spent on the website,

0:09:48.425,0:09:51.139
because that's a cost to people's lives.

0:09:51.661,0:09:53.426
Why should we value that as success?

0:09:54.066,0:09:55.522
And what you were left with

0:09:55.546,0:10:00.287
is something they refer to as "net[br]orchestrated conviviality,"

0:10:00.311,0:10:02.993
or, really, just a net[br]"Good Times" created.

0:10:03.017,0:10:08.049
The net hours that would have never[br]existed, had Couchsurfing not existed.

0:10:08.799,0:10:12.759
Can you imagine how inspiring it would be[br]to come to work every day

0:10:12.783,0:10:14.276
and measure your success

0:10:14.300,0:10:19.329
in the actual net new contribution[br]of hours in people's lives

0:10:19.353,0:10:21.954
that are positive,[br]that would have never existed

0:10:21.978,0:10:24.788
if you didn't do what you were[br]about to do at work today?

0:10:25.692,0:10:30.672
Can you imagine a whole world[br]that worked this way?

0:10:31.564,0:10:34.319
Can you imagine a social network that --

0:10:34.343,0:10:35.926
let's say you care about cooking,

0:10:35.950,0:10:38.981
and it measured its success[br]in terms of cooking nights organized

0:10:39.005,0:10:41.970
and the cooking articles[br]that you were glad you read,

0:10:41.994,0:10:44.971
and subtracted from that the articles[br]you weren't glad you read

0:10:44.995,0:10:47.558
or the time you spent scrolling[br]that you didn't like?

0:10:48.009,0:10:51.505
Imagine a professional social network

0:10:51.529,0:10:55.444
that, instead of measuring its success[br]in terms of connections created

0:10:55.468,0:10:57.057
or messages sent,

0:10:57.081,0:11:01.393
instead measured its success in terms[br]of the job offers that people got

0:11:01.417,0:11:03.246
that they were excited to get.

0:11:04.281,0:11:07.919
And subtracted the amount of time[br]people spent on the website.

0:11:08.643,0:11:11.678
Or imagine dating services,

0:11:11.702,0:11:13.440
like maybe Tinder or something,

0:11:13.464,0:11:16.942
where instead of measuring the number[br]of swipes left and right people did,

0:11:16.966,0:11:19.050
which is how they measure success today,

0:11:19.074,0:11:25.219
instead measured the deep, romantic,[br]fulfilling connections people created.

0:11:26.613,0:11:28.672
Whatever that was for them, by the way.

0:11:31.886,0:11:35.114
But can you imagine a whole world[br]that worked this way,

0:11:35.138,0:11:37.390
that was helping you spend your time well?

0:11:39.009,0:11:41.038
Now to do this you also need a new system,

0:11:41.062,0:11:42.740
because you're probably thinking,

0:11:42.764,0:11:44.319
today's Internet economy --

0:11:44.343,0:11:45.776
today's economy in general --

0:11:45.800,0:11:47.070
is measured in time spent.

0:11:47.094,0:11:49.141
The more users you have,

0:11:49.165,0:11:50.543
the more usage you have,

0:11:50.567,0:11:51.885
the more time people spend,

0:11:51.909,0:11:53.567
that's how we measure success.

0:11:54.419,0:11:56.351
But we've solved this problem before.

0:11:57.335,0:11:59.901
We solved it with organic,

0:11:59.925,0:12:02.859
when we said we need[br]to value things a different way.

0:12:02.883,0:12:05.819
We said this is a different kind of food.

0:12:07.067,0:12:09.116
So we can't compare it[br]just based on price;

0:12:09.140,0:12:10.980
this is a different category of food.

0:12:11.004,0:12:13.737
We solved it with Leed Certification,

0:12:13.761,0:12:17.208
where we said this[br]is a different kind of building

0:12:17.232,0:12:21.379
that stood for different values[br]of environmental sustainability.

0:12:22.500,0:12:26.548
What if we had something[br]like that for technology?

0:12:27.772,0:12:32.969
What if we had something[br]whose entire purpose and goal

0:12:32.993,0:12:37.266
was to help create net new positive[br]contributions to human life?

0:12:38.971,0:12:42.326
And what if we could[br]value it a different way,

0:12:42.350,0:12:43.848
so it would actually work?

0:12:44.634,0:12:48.565
Imagine you gave this different[br]premium shelf space on app stores.

0:12:48.589,0:12:50.924
Imagine you had web browsers[br]that helped route you

0:12:50.948,0:12:53.422
to these kinds of design products.

0:12:55.475,0:12:59.973
Can you imagine how exciting it would be[br]to live and create that world?

0:13:01.211,0:13:03.932
We can create this world today.

0:13:04.978,0:13:07.750
Company leaders, all you have to do --

0:13:07.774,0:13:10.662
only you can prioritize a new metric,

0:13:11.146,0:13:15.549
which is your metric for net positive[br]contribution to human life.

0:13:15.573,0:13:17.624
And have an honest[br]conversation about that.

0:13:17.648,0:13:19.809
Maybe you're not[br]doing so well to start with,

0:13:19.833,0:13:21.524
but let's start that conversation.

0:13:23.035,0:13:28.730
Designers, you can redefine success;[br]you can redefine design.

0:13:28.754,0:13:32.687
Arguably, you have more power[br]than many people in your organization

0:13:32.711,0:13:35.634
to create the choices[br]that all of us live by.

0:13:36.311,0:13:37.712
Maybe like in medicine,

0:13:37.736,0:13:39.594
where we have a Hippocratic oath

0:13:39.618,0:13:43.740
to recognize the responsibility[br]and this higher value

0:13:43.764,0:13:45.331
that we have to treat patients.

0:13:45.355,0:13:47.395
What if designers had something like that,

0:13:47.419,0:13:49.251
in terms of this new kind of design?

0:13:50.668,0:13:52.673
And users, for all of us --

0:13:52.697,0:13:56.200
we can demand technology[br]that works this way.

0:13:57.176,0:13:58.843
Now it may seem hard,

0:13:58.867,0:14:03.264
but McDonald's didn't have salads[br]until the consumer demand was there.

0:14:04.529,0:14:08.722
Walmart didn't have organic food[br]until the consumer demand was there.

0:14:08.746,0:14:13.491
We have to demand[br]this new kind of technology.

0:14:14.194,0:14:15.475
And we can do that.

0:14:16.092,0:14:17.604
And doing that

0:14:17.628,0:14:21.145
would amount to shifting[br]from a world that's driven and run

0:14:21.169,0:14:23.739
entirely on time spent,

0:14:25.151,0:14:29.186
to world that's driven by time well spent.

0:14:31.569,0:14:33.656
I want to live in this world,

0:14:33.680,0:14:35.768
and I want this conversation to happen.

0:14:36.586,0:14:38.436
Let's start that conversation now.

0:14:39.707,0:14:40.858
Thank you.

0:14:40.882,0:14:42.777
(Applause)