The tyranny of convenience

We've built a civilization that treats friction as the enemy. Every product pitch is about removing steps, reducing effort, making things seamless. And it's working — life has never been more convenient.

But convenience is a trap. The things that make life meaningful are almost always inconvenient. Cooking a meal instead of ordering one. Walking somewhere instead of driving. Having a hard conversation instead of sending a text. Writing a letter instead of a like.

The algorithm knows what you want. It does not know what you need. What you want is easy. What you need is hard. And every time you choose the easy thing, you get a little less capable of choosing the hard thing.

I think about this when I'm building AI tools. The goal can't just be "remove friction." Sometimes friction is the point. Sometimes the struggle is where the value lives. The question isn't "how do I make this easier?" It's "what should be easy, and what should stay hard?"