EP. 43 - Friction: What Are We Losing by Making Life Easier?
Friction: What Are We Losing by Making Life Easier?
On effort, discomfort, technology and the things that make life meaningful.
We spend a lot of our lives trying to remove friction.
We make things faster. Easier. More convenient. We order dinner without leaving the couch, navigate without getting lost, exercise without leaving the house, and increasingly use technology to remove the effort involved in thinking, creating and working.
And much of that is good.
But what happens when we start removing the kinds of difficulty that were doing something for us?
In this season finale of Sutterfaction, Evan explores the idea of friction through e-bikes, Uber Eats, exercise, childhood, technology, AI, attention, consumption and the question of what makes a life meaningful.
Because some friction is pointless. Some of it is exhausting. Some of it should absolutely be removed.
But some friction teaches us.
Some strengthens us.
Some connects us.
Some makes us pay attention.
And some of it might be part of the reason the destination means anything at all.
The conversation also returns to ideas from the previous episode on Repair: our attraction to the new, our discomfort with difficulty, and the growing temptation to replace or remove anything that doesn't feel easy.
Maybe the question isn't how much friction we can eliminate.
Maybe it's:
What difficulty is worth keeping?
This is the final episode of Season 4 of Sutterfaction. Thanks for being part of the conversation this season.
Keep thinking. Keep questioning. And keep building a life worth living.