by on

For a long time, I felt wearing spectacles were cool. I went to the extent of buying zero power glasses just to look cool. I guess I was influenced by pop culture where glasses equated to curiosity and intelligence. Though I bought the glasses, I did not carry it around as it was not useful to me. When I eventually had to start using reading glasses, that is when it hit me that using glasses for refractive error is about losing something to gain something.

Reading glasses can’t be worn at all times, as the name suggest it is only for reading at a hand held distance. Rest of the times I had to remove them. This constant on and off was annoying, also very often I used to forget the reading glasses at home and struggle to read fine print. When I reached out to a doctor, I heard the term ‘Emmetropic presbyope’. It means someone who needs reading glasses but had perfect vision all along their life.

The doctor suggested to go for a progressive lens so that I do not need to take the glasses off and on. I was overjoyed when I figured out that it worked well. But the joy was short lived because the rule “You gain something, you lose something kicked in”. When using computers, which is my major activity in a day, progressives makes it harder for you see through a narrow portion of the lens, thereby creating posture problems in the neck and the back. If you use a single vision prescription then either the desktop or reading a mobile device becomes a problem.

Photo by http://www.kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

I went to many of the optician chains in search of the right spectacle setup, my recommendation is to avoid them at all costs as they suggest only what is profitable for them and not what is right for you. One of the chains requires you to buy a membership and insurance, another one had only in house poor quality lenses. Many of these chains are also poorly staffed, so they do not assist you in figuring out the right lens, instead they are trained to sell not to treat.

After almost a year of searching for the right solution, I stepped into a non chain optician and explained them the problem. They asked me to demonstrate my working position and took measurements for nearly 10-15 minutes to give an exact prescription that works. I was given an office degressive lens with a maximum viewing distance of 200 cm. It solved my desk usage and handheld device problem in one go, no unnatural tilting and squinting. The only reason I was able to figure out a solution was that I was not willing to go for a one size fits all approach, where I need to adapt to the glasses to do all my day to day work.

Here is my setup for emmetropic presbyopes

Reading a book, browsing mobile phones, fine print – Best is a single vision glass, if you read at bed time keep a cheap pair next to the bed handy. Degressive office lens and progressive also works well but with blurring at the edges and they are expensive to replace if they are carelessly handled. I bought regular off the shelf ones for less than 500 a pair.

Working at a desk with computer – Best is a degressive office lens as you need to alternate between writing, reading print and computer usage. These are occupational lenses and always get it done from a good optician and very reputed lens brands. Using regular progressive lenses will cause a lot of neck strain, go for zoom in of the fonts and many other hacks to make the narrow intermediate zone work for you. I bought Zeiss office lens with individual customisation option and max viewing distance of 200 cm.

Driving and outdoors – You don’t need glasses for distance vision, but if you find yourself outdoors too often and have to use mobile phones a lot then a good mid range wide corridor progressive lens suited for driving is the best choice. Entry level progressive will cause a massive swim effect which can disorient and make you fall. I bought Essilor varilux comfort max with photochromic option to double up as sunglasses.

Cost – Always go for a mid range solution, you will need to replace your glasses every 2-3 years due to increase in reading power and multiple pairs will add up significantly to the cost. The difference between a mid range and top range is typically 3x-4x and you get the benefit of top range only if your distance vision has a complex prescription.

Let me know what works for you, let us share notes

by on

A lot of recent online purchases made me feel like a transaction generating unit who can be deceived into buying with as many dark patterns as possible. I was using a quick commerce app named after a SI unit prefix, it had asked me to buy their membership for a month for the promise of free delivery. Upon adding an item to cart, I was taken to the checkout where the price was not visible and I prompted with the pay button. I had to navigate out deliberately and figured out that the app had added 500gm variant instead of my intended 200gm, it added the delivery charge, platform fee, handling charge, gst. I was surprised as I had bought membership which promised free delivery just to be annoyed that free delivery was a coupon code which is not automatic.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

I felt very cheated and stopped using that app altogether. This has been designed and developed by well educated individuals guided by industry veterans, yet such dark patterns have become mainstay. Customers deserve honesty and trust, not manipulation. There is only a small line between outright scammers and borderline scammers. The designers and developers behind these kind of apps, view people as mere transactions. The more transactions happen, the richer they get. I wish that more people step out of their optimism bias and start noticing dark patterns, vote with the wallet and kick parasites like these away from the market.

by on

At a logical break from a task which requires focus, I switch to answering mails and chats. One thing that I find difficult to respond to is a series of messages from different people just saying “Hi” or “Hello” or some other one liners which checks ‘how you doing’? People will let me know why are they pinging only when I respond back with a “Hi”.

People are so used to whatsapp communication in personal lives which happens almost instantaneous especially from a section of people who like to be always on. For people engaged in knowledge work, it is extremely hard to have a full duplex communication. The messaging apps have to be considered async first. This means, say what you want to, just like how you write a letter by post to the person expecting long turn around times.

For a remote friendly workplace, first rule that makes it work is async communication. For that to be effective message exchanges have to be rightly sized so that a receiver can read and respond at one go instead of trying to resume the thread once someone becomes available. People should not be available by default for synchronous communication unless they accept a meeting request.

If you have not been an async receiver or a sender, try this for a while – resist the temptation to answer to emails and instant messages immediately as they arrive, best is to turn off notifications for all messengers or any other application. If you receive a ‘Hi’ only message, respond to it in your next window, but resist the temptation to reply synchronously unless you are available.