It can.
I have always believed that.
Perhaps not many people have cared about this. Maybe it is because I love sound, but I really like forms of expression related to it. I even spent time learning about ASMR and discovered that it is directly connected to sound healing.
I originally wanted to build a voice-only social tool because none of the products I had seen could meet my needs. I was very interested in Naval's Airchat, but there is no way for me to use it now. And it is a voice-to-text platform with a text feed.
But as I had more ideas and saw the limitations more clearly, I gave up the original social direction. After several iterations, I finally started building a small voice-to-paint toy. (All right, it is not really “painting,” though “style” is an option. The feature still needs more work.) After finishing the MVP, I played with it for a long time, adjusting the image-generation details again and again. It was obviously still not ideal.
Late at night before bed, I went back to check my email and messages... They encouraged me a little. Together with the MVP above, they gave me a small sense of accomplishment.
I have always had an idealized view of “if you want something, go get it,” because reality is so realistic.
I once spent more than twenty minutes getting advice from a senior person who was a VP at a unicorn. A few seconds after the call ended, I lay down on my bed and tears suddenly spilled from the corners of my eyes... I had not even expected that physical reaction. (Of course, part of it had to be the blow of having that idealized view punctured...
Someone once noticed after talking with me that I care a great deal about things related to the humanities. Before she pointed it out, I thought that was simply human nature.
Right. Especially in the business world.
Being too soft is not necessarily a good thing.
But! I keep wondering: why can't the two be combined more fully? It seems as if everyone is moving toward an extreme?
Not really.
It is because I cannot get into the places where they are combined well.
That is sad, isn't it?
Opinion leaders are all calling out: build in public! Ideas are cheaper than execution! This is the best choice!...
I used to think I was only sensitive to noise in Chinese-language contexts. Now I have discovered that I can accurately feel the noise under English-language social media too.
“Similar recommendations” is a good feature, but only when it is used well.
And of course, the people who designed the feature need to take responsibility too. If they truly want to serve users instead of daily active-user numbers, there is one thing I think is very worth considering: how should the rules weigh a user's occasional search against patterns across their frequent searches and the content on their home feed? This matters a great deal to me.