Same Old, Just Less Friction

As read on Alex M H Smith's strategy newsletter:

The thing we need to understand about tech is that for the most part it isn’t value-additive. It typically doesn’t unlock capacities we didn’t have before - hence the famous Peter Thiel quip about how “they promised us flying cars, and we got 140 characters”.

Instead, it just removes friction from things we were already doing.

AI promises to take that up a notch: Thinking, without friction. But at some point, we have to ask whether removing all that friction was a good idea in the first place, and whether inviting some friction back into our lives can enrich it. Already, people are purposefully seeking out more, not less, friction: Analog (i.e. handwritten) journals and planners are doing great despite coming with immensely more friction than their digital equivalents.

And if you are thinking of creating a product or service, maybe adding more friction is just the counter-positioning you want to stand out from the "fast and easy" crowd.

Of course there's good friction and bad friction, but that's a topic for another email.