I’ve noticed that a lot of companies provide really valuable services yet almost inevitably are hated by consumers. I call this “the Comcast Problem,” though it isn’t limited to Comcast. Companies face this problem when they provide access to things consumers want, but they aren’t themselves the goal.
When I consume great internet content, I get warm vibes from whatever site provided the content, whether it’s instant free access to the world’s knowledge on Wikipedia, thought-provoking discussion on LessWrong, great TV and movies on [whatever streaming platform], or anything else. Conversely, whenever I have problems accessing that stuff, I am quick to blame my ISP (which is in fact Comcast, though it could be anyone). So Comcast is stuck with zero credit for when it provides me with near-instant access to an almost infinite amount of great content (much of it for free[1]), but major blame for the small % of the time when it doesn’t.
Similar dynamics exist for airlines and rental car companies—when I take a great vacation it never occurs to me to think “wow, good thing this company was able to provide (mostly) reliable and (mostly) affordable transportation for me!” But they get the blame when there’s a problem.
None of this is to suggest that these companies are great, that they couldn’t improve, or that they shouldn’t fix whatever problems exist. But they are unfortunately stuck with asymmetric vibes, where the problems are their fault but good things come from others.
I claim this is a failure mode, and that these companies’ status and image is lower than it “should” be.
The Comcast Problem
I’ve noticed that a lot of companies provide really valuable services yet almost inevitably are hated by consumers. I call this “the Comcast Problem,” though it isn’t limited to Comcast. Companies face this problem when they provide access to things consumers want, but they aren’t themselves the goal.
When I consume great internet content, I get warm vibes from whatever site provided the content, whether it’s instant free access to the world’s knowledge on Wikipedia, thought-provoking discussion on LessWrong, great TV and movies on [whatever streaming platform], or anything else. Conversely, whenever I have problems accessing that stuff, I am quick to blame my ISP (which is in fact Comcast, though it could be anyone). So Comcast is stuck with zero credit for when it provides me with near-instant access to an almost infinite amount of great content (much of it for free[1]), but major blame for the small % of the time when it doesn’t.
Similar dynamics exist for airlines and rental car companies—when I take a great vacation it never occurs to me to think “wow, good thing this company was able to provide (mostly) reliable and (mostly) affordable transportation for me!” But they get the blame when there’s a problem.
None of this is to suggest that these companies are great, that they couldn’t improve, or that they shouldn’t fix whatever problems exist. But they are unfortunately stuck with asymmetric vibes, where the problems are their fault but good things come from others.
I claim this is a failure mode, and that these companies’ status and image is lower than it “should” be.
Yes I’m paying a flat fee to my ISP, and then much of the content is provided by third parties for no (additional/marginal) charge.