Jason Fried is the Co-Founder and CEO at 37signals, the maker of Basecamp and HEY. His blog usually engages in discussing business, technology, design and product development, and his post earlier this month became especially interesting to me after last week, when it seemed like technology was out to get me personally. I experienced infuriating breakdowns or glitches from Verizon, American Express, Amazon Prime, my bank (Wells Fargo), Merrick Bank, Microsoft, and, of course, WordPress. Each breakdown involved frustrating interactions with chatbots and automated “customer service” lines, the oxymorons of the century. In total, I lost about four hours of otherwise billable time, and several of the problems have yet to be fully addressed.
Apparently, however, things will soon get worse, unless I hurl myself into that woodchipper, which seems to work just fine.
Fried writes in part regarding the recent experience of his parents when they rented a house near him to spend a few months. He had just come back from a vacation in Montana and had rented a house there. “[E]verything…was old school and clear. Physical up/down light switches in the right places. Appliances without the internet. Buttons with depth and physically-conformed to state change rather than surfaces that don’t obviously register your choice…traditional round rotating Honeywell thermostats that are just clear and obvious. No tours, no instructions, no questions, no fearing you’re going to do something wrong, no wondering how something works. Useful and universally clear. That’s human,” he concluded.
But not in the new, technologically advanced, “improved” house his parents ended up in. He writes in part (and in horror):
Ethics Alarms 
I’ve known of Jason for about twenty years, and I have to wonder how much of current technology stinks because they followed his computing philosophies poorly.
You can thank him for that spinning wheel that you stare at while a page is loading all the unnecessary junk it thinks is essential. AJAX side-loading wss initially a way to get things up in real-time faster, but nobody uses it that way anymore.
Same for all the “in the cloud” hype. Funny thing, my employer announced plans to have everyone “in the cloud” right at the time Jason declared its no longer economically viable for 37S.
Technology is great, until it isn’t.
A few years ago my husband’s head exploded at the latest rise in the cable bill, and we converted to streaming using HULU. We are willing to click a couple more times to get to our viewing choice, since we’re saving about $150 monthly. Two of our five TVs were not smart enough, but purchasing Roku sticks solved the problem. More clicks but big dollar savings. I’m not sure what to call all these hubs, interfaces, servers, apps. Five different screen interfaces, 4 different remotes. You get used to it.
And yes, we have five Big Ass TVs. Danny’s is 100″. Really great for the Super Bowl party. You’re all invited.
Love the wood chipper scene …
Too many consumer items are moving this “connected” insanity along to please a small elite minority of “far left techies” that actually use these devices and think their lives are better for it. These people pay $1500 for a new phone every year, which has every part of their life using some app that’s mining every bit of data from them, and they’re ok with it.
I’m pretty tech savvy but fully reject the idea of adding smart home features due to the inherent security issues and complete lack of need to have my dishwasher, refrigerator, and other appliances to do anything for me other than the one specific function they are supposed to do. When appliances won’t function without using their app or an internet connection, those appliances and the people who design and make them all need to meet the woodchipper.
We made the mistake of buying a spare bedroom TV with Amazon Fire installed. Horrible device. Only usable with plugging in a Roku stick and bypassing the Amazon OS as much as possible.
In five to ten years, I suspect we as a society will look back at this tech era and go “WTF were we thinking?” At least I hope so because the thought of people letting AI into their home to take over normal operations is scary.
Homeowner to refrigerator “Please open the door so I can have a snack.” (in HAL 9000 voice) I’m sorry Dave, you’ve exceeded your calorie count for today. Perhaps you should exercise some and try again later.
Homeowner – “Ok then, start the dishwasher.” I’m sorry Dave, it’s only a partial load and is harmful to the environment to waste water. Please fully load the unit before attempting a run cycle.
Homeowner – “Right, screw you then, I’m going out.” I’m sorry Dave, I talked to your car and we decided you can’t leave. Please contact our customer support division to address any concerns.
Homeowner – “AAAAHHHHGGGG!!! I hate you, you stupid AI. That’s it, I’m done, you’re getting disconnected!” I’m sorry you feel that way Dave. For your safety, I’ve contacted social services and the authorities to come perform a mental health check. Have a nice day.