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Is Human-Centered Design causing us suffering?
The other day, I came across a photo on LinkedIn of a shower, the title: Amazing User Experience. The shower, had a glass door designed with a hole cut out of it. The idea, is that you could reach in and turn on your shower before stepping inside, thus resulting in warm running water when you’re ready to enter.
Seems like a lovely concept, but my gut reaction was one of shock, dismay and disappointment.
Where one might see extreme convenience, the ultimate luxury and pleasure, I saw the potential for great suffering and waste.
2 years ago, I came down with a respiratory infection. I had been to many doctors, tried the usual allopathic prescriptives, then moved along to more holistic modalities to support my healing. There were the weekly acupuncture sessions and the nightly neti pots. My evenings spent with my head over a pot that spouted hot steam into my face, the perpetual scent of Eau De Vicks Vaporub and the birdsong of my hacking lingering in the air. Yet, nothing seemed to help.
During my usual crescendo of coughing into the wee hours of the night, I decided to consult my old confidant Dr. Google… again. I came across a man named Wim Hoff. The ‘Ice Man as he’s known, preaches the gospel of cold showers and their ability to enhance your immune system. I was willing to try anything.
My experience with cold showers up until that point was virtually nonexistent. They were, in my mind, synonymous with bad showers, painful showers, stressful showers. But that very reaction; that aversion, told me that there must be something deeper at play. “Are cold showers inherently bad or is that simply how I perceive them to be?” “What has lead me to perceive them this way?” “Is anything inherently good or bad?” Things got existential quick.
One thing I knew for sure, (besides the fact that I was desperate to stop coughing) was that temperature had a power over me. Too cold and I was running for the covers, too hot and I was running to the thermostat to air condition away my discomfort. Yes, cold water is uncomfortable (as many other physical sensations are) and perhaps, for the duration of the shower, warm water held a sensation that I preferred and had become attached to, but still, did that make warm water inherently good and…
