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As so often, a thinkpiece exemplifies the problem. You include a bunch of random AI-generated images to go with your AI-generated prose. The images are cluttered and filled with pointless, fictional detail which convey nothing beyond the prose and which anyone could vaguely predict, and yet take up something like 2/3rds of the vertical space of the article body. And that is generous, because your items are padded by…
10. Articles with headlines promising to answer "Why", but instead just bombard you with a bunch of examples and never do any analysis or synthesis. My own answers for "why" here things like the incentives of middle managers to always be adding bullet point features (eg 2FA most places), the more of your effort something takes up the less time you can spend on competing options (eg bloated shopping websites that take…
Some of this isn't new, like the printer example. However I recently bought a Canon inkjet printer because it purportedly had good linux support (spoiler: it's actually ok!). Even though MacOS drivers and software were available, all of the online instructions were strictly for Windows. So I set the printer up with the Mac software. Knowing what I know now, I could have done all of the printer setup with the printer…
Reading a little further on this person's site: "Reality drifts when systems stop learning from feedback." A little drier on the dopamine rush.
I wish the FTC hadn't exempted restaurants from junk free transparency requirements.
https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/ftc-exempts-restaurants-...
Restaurant industry celebrates "win" on exemption from junk fee disclosure:
https://www.lra.org/2024/12/17/advocacy-win-restaurants-ftc-...
But delivery fee transparency may be coming:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/16/2026-07...
The following should really apply (of course those "shipping charges" can be another scam, see eBay etc.):
> Businesses may only exclude three categories of charges from the total price: government charges, shipping charges, and fees or charges for optional ancillary goods or services that people choose to add to the transaction.
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/rule-unfair-...
A couldn't agree with the article more. Technology is increasingly being leveraged against us and is making daily life a greater pain in the butt than is necessary, and a greater pain than before the technology came around.
Every day I feel a little more disgusted that this is the field I dedicated my career to. I ignored warnings for 25 years because things seemed fine and then suddenly everything started to turn so fast. These days you can't even warn people about things that are already happening.
Oh, man, am I sympathetic to that. But I try to remind myself that the problem isn't the field itself, it's the industry. Those are two different things. I am on my way out of the industry (it has been getting increasingly problematic over decades, and the water has become a bit too warm for this frog), but will probably never quit the field.
> because things seemed fine and then suddenly everything started to turn so fast.
This is how things often go, historically speaking. Punctuated equilibrium. You have a period that looks like a steady state that is followed by sudden change.
Restaurants that don't have physical menus, and only QR codes. The solution when you don't bring a phone is they bring you their tablet. Why?
So they can raise prices without reprinting the menu?