You Should Always Question the Default Settings

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Default settings allow tech companies to steer people toward behavior they want and still argue that they're “giving users the choice” which is why you should always be skeptical.

to set up LinkedIn for the first time. I didn't find a job. I did, however, find a staggering number of emails in my inbox.

Novelist Douglas Adams wrote about planning documents being "on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'" The joke was that while it wasLinkedIn's email settings are the software equivalent of putting planning documents behind a sign labeled “Beware of the Leopard.” Most people aren't going to bother digging through the settings long enough to change these settings.

This is the power of default settings. It allows tech companies to steer people toward behavior they want and still argue that they're “giving users the choice.” Which is why you should always be skeptical of the default settings.In an age long since passed, the marketing departments at software companies were separate from the people making the software. That's not the case anymore, and the term "growth hacking" is a big reason why.

 

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Agreed! 👏👏👏

I think it's fair on both sides and it would be nice if software was more customizable.

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