Anyone else feel like the golden age of internet services is behind us, and this shitty version is the only path ahead of us?
I have this theory, for a long time, that a lot of what sucks in computing is simply because at some moment it was the only thing that worked at certain scale.
Computing is said to be the second industrial revolution and therefore there is an overwhelming force to adopt whatever already works, no matter how much it sucks.
Later, inertia keeps the sucking solution for longer that it would stand on its own, until someone manages to put something obviously better in the market.
Some day recomendation systems will stop sucking. Meanwhile, take them for what they are.
I worry that it's an inevitable outcome of capitalization akin to what I think we've seen in physical goods:
Stage 1: make crappy products because you don't know better
Stage 2: make quality products because now you can
Stage 3: realize that you can make more money by making your product cheaper. Outsource the labor, turn the metal into plastic. People won't even mind if it breaks if they can just get another one. In fact, why not design it to eventually break so you can sell even more?
Stage 4: realize you can make even more money by turning your product into a service with app integration
And it's difficult to go back to a previous Stage because you'll always lose, like trying to un-invent gunpowder weapons. From the perspective of a consumer who cares and wants Stage 2 products, the system's decayed to maximum entropy; the forest is gone; all the trees have been chopped down; the soil's depleted. :C
My favorite example of this is the “whirly pop”, which is a stovetop popcorn maker with a little device for stirring the popcorn kernels. They did the MBA thing and slowly chipped away at the cost, to the point that the lid is a piece of aluminum equivalent to 3 sheets of foil. It’s non-functional and possibly dangerous - but still $30 at Walmart.
The twist is they did go back - you can buy something closer to the 1990 version at Williams Sonoma, except it’s $90.
This is just how we've fought inflation for many years. Things have gotten more accessible, not by accident, but through innovation. And, if your want to pay for quality, you typically still can. Seems like the best of both worlds.
Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to get all the quality but at the low-ball price? Doesn't work that way.
(Not intending to direct this at you specifically spooky. Just hammering your point home for parent poster.)
> Did you want to get all the quality but at the low-ball price? Doesn't work that way.
This is patently false. Look at innovation in things like TVs and personal computers. Technology has gotten significantly cheaper and significantly better quality (although TVs have started to decline in recent years).
I understand your sentiment but I don't think it's impossible to ask for innovation to allow old products to be created cheaper without compromising on quality.
Sure, not to say it's impossible. Sometimes you have early technology that can be refined through mass production. But at some point, you optimize as well as you can, and then the only way to continue driving or keeping prices down is to make compromises.
I have this theory, for a long time, that a lot of what sucks in computing is simply because at some moment it was the only thing that worked at certain scale.
Computing is said to be the second industrial revolution and therefore there is an overwhelming force to adopt whatever already works, no matter how much it sucks.
Later, inertia keeps the sucking solution for longer that it would stand on its own, until someone manages to put something obviously better in the market.
Some day recomendation systems will stop sucking. Meanwhile, take them for what they are.