We'll all have less, and we'll all be happy

The reduction

The adage goes by “Less is more”.

While I believe the term is coined to expouse the idea of minimalism, it has taken a dark turn.

I think the full version now is “You’ll have less and pay more”, especially in tech.

I can think of three examples, but I’m sure there are more:

• Personal Computers (PC) used to be general purpose machines, while modern personal computers (your phone) are specialized machines capable of only running certain things whitelisted by the makers of the phone.
  • You could run all sorts of legal/illegal programs at your own risk on your PC, but doing so on your phone is branded as “jailbreaking” or “sideloading”.
  • You could install an alternative OS on your PC (e.g. Linux) to dual-boot, but doing so on your phone voids your warranty and you’re potentially a criminal now?
• Web browsers used to be able to go to any websites and you’re able to add/remove any feature you want from those websites using extensions, while mobile apps are enclosed ecosystems able to accomplish only one thing at the whim of the developer.
  • You can install ad block on the browser that still supports it to block YouTube Ads, but you won’t be able to do so on the YouTube app.
  • You can easily bypass a paywalled article on web browser via various archival means, but you’re forced to pay for it on the news app even though you’re trying to access the same article.
• Android phones started off from an open-source standard where you could install any apps you want at your own risk, but Android is changing that soon, removing one key selling proposition of Android as a product.

The death of the power users

I don’t think this is related to enshittification, but it’s happening in parallel.

I believe this is happening naturally as the companies aim to serve the 80% who’ll still be happy despite losing the power features. Perhaps still, the majority of the 20% are neutral, while a small 1% (the power users) are unhappy.

General purpose tools that allow power users to use 100% of the tool are losing out to specialized tools where we’re given 50% of what we used to be able to do, but most of us will not use the other 50% anyway.

I guess the difference is we’ll still be paying the same amount, or most of the time, actually more. That is the sad part.

• Phones are much more expensive per unit of compute power vs laptops.
• While apps could be paid, but if not, we’re served more ads per available real estate vs a web browser.
• The Android phones will still be the same price, or more expensive, despite lacking the full features.

It will continue and those companies will still be successful as long as most of the 80% are still happy.

While it’s easy to chuck the power users away by saying “Yes, but you’re just the 1%. Most of us don’t need those”, it’s important to know what we’re losing from losing the power users.

In a way, power users have been the ones defending us from worsening consumer power.