But in the context of “strategic norms of technology”, it need not be. The important bit is to add friction to transportation and communication.
Returning to this post, I feel like this is the real core of the value here.
The add friction strategy looks like it would work on arbitrary combinations of choices. Given choices A and B, we rationally prefer A but frequently choose B, then add friction to B until we begin to choose A consistently. By adding different amounts of friction, we can arbitrarily sort A, B, C etc.
I’ve definitely benefited from having control over how much friction something had; adding a cost to visiting reddit made it less likely I’d waste time there all out of proportion to how large the cost actually was.
Returning to this post, I feel like this is the real core of the value here.
The add friction strategy looks like it would work on arbitrary combinations of choices. Given choices A and B, we rationally prefer A but frequently choose B, then add friction to B until we begin to choose A consistently. By adding different amounts of friction, we can arbitrarily sort A, B, C etc.
This is basically Beware Trivial Inconveniences applied systematically to achieve the desired norms.
I’ve definitely benefited from having control over how much friction something had; adding a cost to visiting reddit made it less likely I’d waste time there all out of proportion to how large the cost actually was.