A random thought on progress

Progress is not to have 10 competing service providers for an essential service that are all bad in their own way. It’s not solemnly about having the liberty to choose between a pool of equally crappy and deceptive competitors.

Progress is when I don’t have to do extensive research on which one of those service providers doesn’t screw one up, and which one sucks the least. It’s when I don’t have to choose or (ideally) when I can choose without fear. We all are way too busy in our daily lives and do not have exceeding mental bandwidth so that we can constantly perform extensive research about every service we need to keep going on our daily lives.

Some things just need to work. In a positivistic future world, we will have reliable services where we won’t have to choose between bullying providers, and without fear of being disappointed or hornswoggled.

Progress is not alone when I can choose between 10 different services, but when I don’t have to.