There is trend to remove friction from everything we do. We're in a constant state of trying to make things easier, faster, simple, almost to the point of thoughtless action. This is a problem. Friction (in the business sense) are barriers towards doing things. Things like, having to register for a site before you can purchase something, making people click past an ad before you can read an article or having to actually go to a store to buy something are considered friction. Online, friction is product death sentence. Making people think about anything is a puzzle to be solved. Engineers and entrepreneurs want to make our lives easier and with less friction.
We want you to be able to order anything from your desktop then anything off your phone. We want you to be able to communicate without typing too many letters or share your life withour explicitly saying so.
The problem with frictionless life is you lose free will. You don't have to decide to do anything. You don't decide to share. You don't decide what you want to buy, it's recommended. We're driving ourselves into a decision free world. What happens when we lose the capacity to think about what we want to do? Should I share this or that?
Friction also creates work for people. The more efficient we make things the less people need to actually do it. If we can make shopping so friction-less we don't need stores, what do all the people do that worked in those stores?
If we make decision making friction-less where are our debates going to come in about where to go? What to do? How to do it.
Friction is the basis for fire, for change. When things are problematic, we have to fight against friction. Arguments are a form of friction. Debate is a form of friction. We need to continue to have friction in our lives to move forward and tackle new problems
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