Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paranoid Android is very fitting. I think Curtis has some great ideas - but the things like give me the toaster that 80% of the people in the world favor, just falls flat on its face. What about the other toasters? What happened to choice - to choosing something different, because it might be not as well liked, but better? I know his blog post was moreover a non-analyzed wishlist, not meant to be carefully studied. I…
I see researching and shopping for toasters as one of those menial tasks that you agree should be eliminated. You can do it yourself and dive into the 1000 choices if it's important to you, but it's nice to be able get a "quite good" result without having to give it much time or attention. Save the energy for making more interesting decisions.
Good point.
However, part of the 'personal shopper' wish beholds capitalism if it is too biased rather than user-specific and understanding of the individual and the variety of ways that humans have preferences - based on aesthetic, ease-of-use, etc. Shouldn't the toaster selection have a bit more intelligence than a straight communist 1-toaster-for-all choice?