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New In What Can I Do: Notifcations · The Most Important Question

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] All right, so we just kinda quietly launched a new feature in WhatCanIDo.
• 0:12
  This whole thing started in, like, 2018 or something, 'cause I felt like most of the news in the headlines was not what was most important. It was just after or around when the first real daunting IPCC reports came out.
• 0:28
  Made a little newsletter, "Hey, here's the five things you missed," with links to reputable journalism and just pull quotes and, and that was it, and sent it out to a bunch of people I trust.
• 0:38
  The first feedback I really got that was meaningful was people going, "Great, but what do you think about it all?" And I was like, "Nobody cares."
• 0:45
  And that same person or somebody else, I don't know, said, "Okay, but then why does it have to come from you?" Which is exhausting but fair.
• 0:53
  And so I started to add a little sorta generalist analysis to it from someone who's done a million things. You know, the why of the human nature behind how, how we got here and where we might go.
• 1:03
  That went on for a little bit. Next feedback was, "This is great. I would like to know way more about this s- very specific topic."
• 1:11
  And, and you know, my response, which is still my same response, is, "I, I am not a doctor or a scientist or, or really have any qualifications or credentials of any kind, so no, I c- I can't give you that answer."
• 1:24
  But thought about it, and I realized I had some great folks on speed dial and some others that I'm happy to cold call, and I could ask them questions, and that turned into the podcast, right?
• 1:33
  This deep dive with a specific person who's already answered that question for themselves of what can I do and why they do it and why they do that work and, and how we can support it.
• 1:42
  So that was a complement to sort of the news roundup.
• 1:44
  And then, you know, that went on, and eventually we really started getting the most important feedback of all, which is the most important question of all, of people going, "Okay, but what can I do about all this?"
• 1:55
  And so I and then we and Willow and, and, and as other folks joined, we, we started to add these action steps, as we called them, to the newsletter and the end of the podcast about specific things you could do related to that news headline or that court case or that issue or location, if it was a disaster, whatever it might be.
• 2:15
  We tried to research them as best we could, and we built some informal but rigorous systems to try to be as accurate as we can. And, and in the meantime, you know, the web was kind of being pulled apart.
• 2:24
  All, all of a sudden, the top ten links on-- blue links on a Google search were, were paid.
• 2:29
  It became harder and harder, even before sort of mass disinformation, intentional disinformation, it became harder to tell what, what was the authentically the most measurable thing you could do. Which is fair.
• 2:40
  We were in a moment of carbon credits and shit like that, and airlines saying, "Oh, your flight's net zero," and it fucking is not and never will be the, the way it's going. Removal's a whole different thing.
• 2:52
  Talk about it later. Anyways, we were like, "No, fuck that. Here are things you can actually do." You know? Don't contribute to big federal races that we're definitely gonna win or definitely gonna lose.
• 3:00
  It's a waste of money. Contribute to these other ones that, that could swing something because of a specific issue.
• 3:06
  Contribute to state races or local ones that are more affordable and, you know, gonna affect your everyday life, especially in the past few years.
• 3:13
  So we did that, and then we started getting this really interesting feedback even after we launched the app, which, you know, version one we are just incredibly proud of 'cause we took all those things that we put at the end of emails or podcasts, whatever, and just said, "Hey, here they are all in one place if you need them on your phone on the go, uh, you don't wanna look through emails for them, you tried to save one for later, you are spinning out in the middle of the night," whatever it is.
• 3:38
  I wrote a whole essay about why I realized I needed this too or could've used this all along. It was people going, "I'm keeping up with things. I understand it better. I know what I can do.
• 3:48
  But I-- looking at the headlines, looking at the state of the world or America or whatever, and because of the way we're disconnected by the, quote-unquote, 'social networks' that we're all on in different measures,
• 4:00
  I don't feel like anyone else is doing anything. I don't feel like anyone else gives a shit like I do. I don't feel like we're making any progress."
• 4:09
  And that's a tough one 'cause there are so many people doing incredible, incredible, incredible things well beyond the experts or politicians we have on the podcast or scientists or grant writers, whatever it might be, farmers.
• 4:20
  Even all the students coming up trying to do-- trying to emulate that or carve their own way, right? New technologies to answer old moral questions, whatever.
• 4:28
  This was even as we started to really define actually pro-life and say, "How do we rebuild or build anew for the first time a really measurable sort of set of values in a world when everybody goes to church anymore?"
• 4:39
  Or at least, you know, there's not faith and works the way there should be. What is something very basic and very primal and fundamental that we can unify around and then fly your freak flag however you want on top?
• 4:52
  And people seem to really identify with that. It's either for you or it's definitely not, and that's exactly how we set it up.
• 4:59
  But in a world where you are attached to some kind of device at all times, and maybe you have completely turned off notifications except for your partner and your kid's school, like I have, or you're still flooded with them and can't catch up with them or you don't bother, whatever, there's just noise.
• 5:15
  Notifications are a way of meeting people where they are. Keeping all that in mind, you have to do it intentionally. You have to try to listen and then answer the question.
• 5:23
  So we basically did a complete brain transplant of What Can I Do, and it's gonna lead to a lot of incredible stuff. But the first thing it's doing is turning on notifications.
• 5:32
  And I hate them, but here's what we have done. We listened to all that, and we made ours opt-in, of course.
• 5:39
  And they're relatively straightforward now, but as we onboard more and more users, and if you haven't tried it yet, please do.
• 5:46
  As we bring in more contextual data, something that's coming, and more dynamic actions all powered by this brain transplant, I really do notifications...
• 5:55
  I, I believe they can be a meaningful way for someone who has opted in to get an alert that, yes, somebody else did just do something. That is not an alert we usually get.
• 6:04
  Or that, hey, a new action's available on an issue. You made a profile and you said, "This is something I care about. Clean water or wastewater or lead pipes or malaria or reproductive rights", whatever.
• 6:15
  Or in a location you've saved, there's a new action there of some kind from one of our 11 verbs.
• 6:20
  And you've saved that location 'cause you live there and you vote there, or you work there, or you have family there, or you're from there originally, or you're in the Peace Corps there, or Teach For America, or simply because, you know, fuck malaria.
• 6:34
  That's why you saved that location. Notifications can show you all of that, and I, and I do think that that could be meaningful if you give them a chance, and if we do it right, which will take some trial and error.
• 6:43
  And then soon you'll be able to see a notification that someone did something because they saw that you did it first. Your action that you took in the app drove more action, and that's measurable.
• 6:53
  We're measuring that, and we- we're sending you a notification about it 'cause you opted in, again, and because you, again, have given us this feedback that you need and w- really want and desire that kind of reassurance that you are not fucking alone in this.
• 7:08
  So whatcanido.earth will always be completely free to search all the research.
• 7:14
  But if you want notifications, if you wanna be able to save locations and follow people and be followed and have people take action because you did and, and vice versa, and all these other things we're building, you can become an important member.
• 7:25
  And notifications are currently live.
• 7:27
  They're available in-app, which is just when you're logged into the app looking at it, by way of your browser on desktop or mobile, or via email, which again, you, you choose how and what you want.
• 7:39
  We are not reinventing the wheel, and that is on purpose.
• 7:41
  We're meeting people where they are with the technologies and, and systems they're used to, but we're trying to listen and respond and reinvent ourselves truly from the ground up.
• 7:50
  And yeah, I'm really excited to see what people do that I get notified about. I think it's awesome. So check it out, whatcanido.earth. You can upgrade 30-day free trial. And yeah, there's so much more to come.
• 8:06
  Can't wait. Thanks for listening. [outro jingle]