Cultural Anthropology and Philosophy while waiting in line at Starbucks

I was in New York City a week ago. Before I went into work, I was waiting in line to order a coffee at Starbucks. Finally arriving at the front of the line I walk up to the register, but a man with a Middle Eastern accent jumps in front of everyone and shoves a hundred dollar bill in the cashier's face. He demands three espressos. Without going into detail about the confused and frustrated look on my face, while I walked to work I compared Middle Eastern and American culture. I was curious about their cultural approaches when it comes to reserving a table at a restaurant and ordering what you want at a market (in this case, a coffee shop).

Edward Hall in his book the Hidden Dimension observes we don't notice our own cultural norms until we come up against another culture with a different set of tacit rules. Having come up against a Middle Eastern interaction, I asked myself, what does the line represent in American culture? I think the answer to this question goes back to 1776 - standing in line means that everyone is created equal. It's a utilitarian solution to ensure everyone's needs and wants are of equal value.

The Middle Eastern man trying to order his espressos must have felt just as frustrated as me, trying to figure out why he couldn't order his espresso. My Iranian father occasionally expressed these frustrations at restaurants when he wasn't served immediately. Growing up, I had a difficult time understanding why he wouldn't make a reservation ahead of time. Instead, he would make a scene after hearing there's a two hour wait time when he arrived at the restaurant. Now that I'm 3000 miles away from where I grew up, Los Angeles, I feel like I have a new understanding for this part of Middle Eastern and American culture.

What do other people think, what does the line represent?

My Reading List through Design Grad School

These are some books and articles I've found to be useful in figuring out what design used to be, where design is going, and how ideas from other fields are mingling with design. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.


Online Articles, Papers, and Essays:

• The Hannover Principles, Design for Sustainability by William McDonough
• In Pursuit of the Perfect Brainstorm by David Segal
• Design Thinking Won't Save You by Helen Walters

Cognitive Science/Neuroscience:

• On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
• Mind Time by Benjamin Libet
• The Vision Revolution by Mark Changizi
• Supersizing The Mind by Andy Clark
• The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks

Interactive and Digital Design:

• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
• Persuasive Technology by B.J. Fogg
• Affective Computing by Rosalind Picard

Social Dynamics:

• Paradoxes of Group Life: Understanding Conflict, Paralysis, and Movement in Group Dynamics by Smith and Berg
• The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman
• The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich
• Engineer Culture by Gideon Kunda
• The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin
• The Skilled Facilitator by Robert Schwarz

Fundamental Concepts in Design:

• Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko
• The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Emotional Design by Donald Norman
• The Design of Future Things by Donald Norman
• Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
• Design is the Problem by Nathan Shedroff

Business:

• The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries
• Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder

Anthropology:

• The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall
• The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall
• Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Storytelling:

• Storytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks

Visualizing information/conversations/etc:

• Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam

The Anthropology of Human Robot Interaction

A few months ago I dismantled my mind controlled crane and re-used the arduino and servos to build a robotic head. The inspiration to build a robotic head that would follow people's gaze came after I finished reading Sherry Turkle's Alone Together. In the book, she describes and provides analysis for people's reactions and interactions to the robots that are being built at the MIT Media Labs. She describes how people associate emotions to external creatures that appear to pay attention to them. She goes on to argue the seductive nature of these robots taking advantage of the human need and want to connect and feel as if another entity is listening and paying attention. Scroll to the bottom to see a recent Ted Talk by her about some of the concepts in her recent book.

Check out the following videos to watch people interacting and attributing feelings and perceptions to Johnny Four.

A closeup of Johnny Four:

Sherry Turkle giving a ted talk: