When Tech Adds Friction Instead of Value

`1:59:35`

so they had some more room. They like their room. So, we rented them a house, and it's a brand-new construction house, so we're like, "Oh, it's nice. There'll be no issues," you know, no leaks and no issues. So we get in the house, and like most new construction, it's got digital shit everywhere, right? The thermostats aren't like thermostats that you can just turn anymore; they're like touch screens. And some of those are good, like Nest is good. — Yeah. — This doesn't have Nest. Nest is a great product. It's funny, because it's a great product based on the original Honeywell design, that Dreyfuss design, I forget his first name. The round dial. Nest just updated that because- — Yeah. —...it's such a good design. These are, like, rectangular and big and have the weather forecast on them. I'm like... Or whatever. But actually, the thermostats don't. That's the alarm panel that has an... It's like a huge iPad screen.

`2:00:21`

Anyway, screens and screens, and everything's a touch screen. Everything's a big black glass thing with too much stuff on it, because you've got to fill up the screen. You can't just have a tiny screen, you got to have a big screen, and if you have a big screen, you put stuff on it, so you put stuff on it. The dishwasher couldn't be used the first time without an app to register it. So, my mom wants to do the dishes, but they don't work. She had to call the house manager guy. He had to come down. He's like, "Why doesn't this work?" He plugged it in, and "Oh, there's an app. I got to get an app." — Like, what? — You're adding and not making it better. — To do the dishes? — Yeah. Exactly. Your insight is exactly right. Adding it, not making it better. The alarm panel is slow and laggy. The thermostats, they say a number on them, and you're like, "Is that the current temperature or the temperature I want it to be?" I changed the temperature, but then there's a schedule, which I can't quickly, simply modify,

`2:01:08`

because it's in this little menu structure with this little laggy UI, and you're like, "Does anyone use this?" The people who built this certainly don't have this in their house. There's no way. There's no way they have this in their house, right? This is not a product built by people who are using the product they're building. This is a product built to specifications. Someone imagined this. There's this... Whatever. I don't actually know how that happens. I'm baffled by how it happens. The TVs, you know, now... I'm not a Luddite old-timer thing. But you don't turn a TV on anymore, you boot the TV up, and it takes 12 seconds to get a menu before you can... Again, there were some things that were better before. — Yeah. — You turn the TV on, and the channel that you were on would be ON. That was good!

`2:01:53`

It's amazing, like, you can't do that today. That's actually not even a possible thing. You turn it on, and you're back to some menu with all the options again. It's like, "How do we go backwards?" I call this the great regression. Thermostats have gotten worse. Nest, maybe, is an exception. I'll grant them that. Good product. A really good product. Big alarm panels, a lot of panels, a lot of third-party products with big glass screens, bad. Touchscreens, often bad. In fact, car manufacturers, with the exception of Tesla, because Tesla's is outstanding, but everyone else who put a bunch of screens in their cars, they're starting to move back to dials again and buttons again, because people are like, "This sucks." Software is hard, and a big piece of glass; there's no tactile feedback. I can't do it, and I have to look at it.

`2:02:38`

There's no muscle memory, because I'm not sure I'm just confirming what I'm doing. Like, these are bad things. So, the technology can get worse, and then it can slide back, and hopefully, it can get better again, and new lessons can be learned. But it was a revelation to me to go into new home with the state-of-the-art stuff, and see how backwards it was. And I'm in technology. Again, I'm not a Luddite. I'm not afraid of this stuff, I get it. But to see how bad it's gotten, like the light switches, literally... When we rented the place, my agent, who found it and whatever, and did the negotiations and stuff, he's like, "Hey, they want to do a walk-through with you." And I go, "Cool, I'll be there tomorrow." And I thought the walk-through was going to be just like, "Here's the house," but it was like, "No, here's how you use the lights."