I like your examination here. I have a few extra wrinkles that come to mind...
* Index Funds: a good comparison, except that the financials generally make them a better performing product over actively managed funds with heavy management fees. The psychology of thinking the average person beats the market average is key here.
* Alexa: "detergent, dog food, printer ink, the maybe 60% of your cart that’s pure habit" clearly aren't self-expression. Bounty paper towels, Medicube Zero Pore Pads, and Amazon Basics Printer Paper are also some of their most popular products and would seem lazy-Alexa-ready. There needs to be some soul-searching why, and it may have something in common why smart refrigerators that order your food for you have never taken off.
* Navigation: there is a bit of a rebellion against app drivers in favor of cabs, particularly as the former don't know the neighborhoods nor the traffic patterns of the places they serve -- often because they arrive untrained from much further away. Navigating London by Waze or Google Maps is very different from Chicago.
* Spotify deciding what you hear next: This very thing tanked my use of their service. My 2023 "Spotify Wrapped" top song and artist were both things I had never ever heard of. It's not just that Spotify got enshittified, it's that I deduced they must have autoplayed songs that Spotify wanted me to listen to (lower licensing fees, etc.?) rather than anything I recognized or wanted when my streams reached the end of selected album, etc. Spotify wanted me to be a listener that I wasn't.
That last one, the Spotify example, I think would be agentic commerce's Achilles heel. Living outside the U.S. for eight years, I am mixed with both amazement and horror that being able to purchase anything at any time in America is still considered a legitimate challenge. "Convenience" is easily the nation's most devout religion.
But if the agent starts buying things because it's the customer it wants me to be instead of the customer I actually am, then there is tremendous risk. As with Spotify, unlike Alexa, they don't even have to own the store for this to happen.
Love those points my friend! I largely agree - certainly with Spotify. Yet, I know so many people who happily listen to whatever Spotify serves up… Maybe you and I care too much about music.
And yes – as someone who lived in London, I find London particularly challenging to navigate (and hence the reason why a good, old black cab is still such a better experience… Plus, the actual black cabs are actually rather well designed cars for what they are for, rather than a Prius). But I also find this a specific challenge to London - much less so in Berlin for example… :)
I like your examination here. I have a few extra wrinkles that come to mind...
* Index Funds: a good comparison, except that the financials generally make them a better performing product over actively managed funds with heavy management fees. The psychology of thinking the average person beats the market average is key here.
* Alexa: "detergent, dog food, printer ink, the maybe 60% of your cart that’s pure habit" clearly aren't self-expression. Bounty paper towels, Medicube Zero Pore Pads, and Amazon Basics Printer Paper are also some of their most popular products and would seem lazy-Alexa-ready. There needs to be some soul-searching why, and it may have something in common why smart refrigerators that order your food for you have never taken off.
* Navigation: there is a bit of a rebellion against app drivers in favor of cabs, particularly as the former don't know the neighborhoods nor the traffic patterns of the places they serve -- often because they arrive untrained from much further away. Navigating London by Waze or Google Maps is very different from Chicago.
* Spotify deciding what you hear next: This very thing tanked my use of their service. My 2023 "Spotify Wrapped" top song and artist were both things I had never ever heard of. It's not just that Spotify got enshittified, it's that I deduced they must have autoplayed songs that Spotify wanted me to listen to (lower licensing fees, etc.?) rather than anything I recognized or wanted when my streams reached the end of selected album, etc. Spotify wanted me to be a listener that I wasn't.
That last one, the Spotify example, I think would be agentic commerce's Achilles heel. Living outside the U.S. for eight years, I am mixed with both amazement and horror that being able to purchase anything at any time in America is still considered a legitimate challenge. "Convenience" is easily the nation's most devout religion.
But if the agent starts buying things because it's the customer it wants me to be instead of the customer I actually am, then there is tremendous risk. As with Spotify, unlike Alexa, they don't even have to own the store for this to happen.
Love those points my friend! I largely agree - certainly with Spotify. Yet, I know so many people who happily listen to whatever Spotify serves up… Maybe you and I care too much about music.
And yes – as someone who lived in London, I find London particularly challenging to navigate (and hence the reason why a good, old black cab is still such a better experience… Plus, the actual black cabs are actually rather well designed cars for what they are for, rather than a Prius). But I also find this a specific challenge to London - much less so in Berlin for example… :)