People Like Us

The heavy_check_mark.

In Slack, one of the emojis is a check mark it signifies that a task is complete. When one of your colleagues tells you that a task is complete you probably use it as an acknowledgement. Unfortunately the standard emoji is a gross, lurid, neon green

But programmers like dark mode and a lot of programmers use Slack. So I was interacting in Slack with a new but old client yesterday and discussing project details and he checkboxed something I wrote but he used a heavy_check_mark.

I was gobsmacked but he was right, as he had been so many times before. This check mark was a thing of beauty, a dark background with a lighter tick. All hail the heavy_check_mark

Of course real programmers use a check mark in dark mode. It made so much sense and it was clear as day to me that as Seth Godin says;

“People like us do things like this”

So what was the first thing I did, make sure that the heavy_check_mark was in my Slack favourites and used it liberally because imitation is the sincerest from of flattery as they say.