Deepening a relationship. Visiting a sick friend. Serving at a soup kitchen. Andreessen’s “techno-optimist” mindset is confounded by acts of love. They don’t make money, they don’t supercharge a market, and perhaps most heretically, they’re typically low-tech or even involve no technology at all. What is a techno-optimist supposed to do with this “love” idea, this thing that keeps people out of markets and off the internet? It literally doesn’t compute.

Marc Andreessen is right – love doesn’t scale

There were devices that simply did what they were for, without demanding attention. For their makers, they had some real problems. They had moving parts, which meant that they required more factory tooling and had more warranty returns. They were terrible for displaying advertisements. Without always-on internet connections, they were really bad for buying other things with.

From Glow by Tom MacWright.

Some of my favorite non-glowing devices that are still in use:

The LightPhone II An e-reader A digital watch

They talk about you, gurgling sugar through their roots …

Source: Root Words

A touchscreen, then, operates as a digital platform where features can be locked or unlocked by the company at will, depending on customers’ rent payments. Physical buttons, on the other hand, can’t be turned into rent. They only serve the customer, so they’re less attractive.

Source: Creative Good: Why car companies (still) ignore customers

Rad Reader by Alexander Cobleigh. “It’s like a pokedex for personal websites, and designed to surface the latest posts for you to view rather than juggle an ever-increasing inbox.”

If your concept of “progress” doesn’t put people at the center of it, is it even progress?

Source: I’m a Ludite (and so can you!)

A TODO “App”