The expected nastiness of a surprise is tied to the fidelity of the user's mental model and the stakes.
An inaccurate mental model and high stakes is a recipe for a massive nasty surprise.
From other episodes
- The best UXR comes up with a mental model and then design studies to falsify it.2026-04-06
- Users are stickier to UX than agents are to APIs.2026-03-23
- The ability and willingness to absorb disconfirming evidence is a superpower.2026-03-17
- Leave easter eggs for delight in your product.2026-03-09
- Excellent analysis by Orion Reed on Digital Topology and Economic Power.2026-03-02
- I wonder if the whole focus on AGI is downstream of LLMs talking like humans.2026-03-02
- The technical term for when a tool merges with our mental model is mechanical sympathy.2026-02-23
- A rough mental model of Reinforcement Learning curriculum.2026-02-16