Tyranny of Convenience

Considering a number of business strategies it seems the best businesses are the ones addressing customers' convenience. People are soo willing to pay for that. Some assorted examples from the history are automatic transmissions, fast food chains, processed food (in general), drive-through, services coupled with smartphone apps (food delivery, personal transportation), one-click shopping with recommendations, car navigation, TV channel fishing and so on.

Humans are lazy and they think they are smart when taking a bait (and getting on a hook) to make their lives easier. We can no longer cook, shift gears, read maps. We feel smart and self-satisfied while becoming less curious, less critical and less informed. Pushing ourselves into mental slavery ruled by elite masters (supported by an army of lawyers), who ruthlessly exploit our diminishing willingness and capacity to think.

And it has not been like that just recently. As Yuval Noah Harari points out in Sapiens: hunter-gatherers settling down was the first major bad decision humans have ever made. And it only got worse from there... Worse diet, less healthy lifestyle, more monotonous work... But supposedly it was more convenient :)  

Driven by convenience we demand more and more nonsense inventions like rain sensors, just because turning wipers on requires oh so much effort... And speaking of automotive - now it seems self driving cars is the mankind's most wanted innovation being worked on by thousands of engineers and backed by billions in investment money and crazy stock valuations.

Many of you are probably familiar with the Ark Invest's bullish stance on Tesla, with autonomous driving "Robotaxi" being at the center of that. Long story short, the thesis is that driving a car is so so inconvenient that most of us will be paying for a self driving car just to "sit in the backseat and watch Netflix" (at 7:46s mark).

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for car sharing. But self-driving for everyone? Is this really what we want? Do we want to push ourselves to a corner where we are incapable of performing the most basic tasks, just blankly consuming the electronic content pulp instead?

That is so sad. And even tragic. Driving a car is so hard and exhausting... Should I even suggest considering a bicycle or a walk? Or taking a public transport?

Before the pandemic I was flying a lot. And every time a flight was an awesome experience. Despite million air-miles collected, I was always glued to the window, admiring the miracles of the nature. I could never understand people who - as soon as seated - were pulling down window blinds, then searched for a WiFi signal and had their eyes pinned to their mobile screens until touchdown.

Of course this convenience will drive even more businesses, not only Netflix subscriptions. Slim-fast diet supplements are naturally next. Health insurance, covering orthopedic treatments. And then airlines will even increase their revenues by charging premium dollars for premium weight. All great for the economy. GDP will grow again while the mankind will continue plunging itself into addiction and dependence on even more convenient products and services.

My naïve hope was the pandemic could have been a wake-up call and people would mobilize themselves to rekindle the natural curiosity, would wake the crave for some more individual effort, some more adventure, as rain sensors and packaged food delivered to their doors had a chance to be put in proper perspective. But generally - it has not happened. Is there hope? Or are we one the verge of dark ages II, nearing the demise of our global "roman" empire?