you can definitely see that the failure of the latest few waves of tech investment is kind of a failure of imagination. decades of the same guys with the same stale dreams
the big trend in tech for the last 15 years especially i've noticed is so far from the "product market fit" narrative you hear about. instead, it's revolved mostly around the complexity and all-encompassing nature of communications and commerce technology itself being used to coerce and herd consumers into exploitative relationships. the objective of the software developer is to design ever-more elaborate traps, or at least produce a continuous supply of delicious-looking bait to fill them with
there's just something so extrinsic about the whole thing. the business model is built first; the actual stuff we interact with, the things we're supposed to care about? just a thin wrapper, a disguise. only rarely does a new technology come along which serves a human need first. usually when you hear about someone using a product in a way that gives them agency, allows them to accomplish something personal, allows them to flourish, it will turn out they're not using it as intended
