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Comment by nurbl | Hacker News Reader

I see your point and I'm not contradicting you, but I do feel that this expectation of comfort is the main hook that locked down technology is using to get us. Once we're used to it we don't easily give it up. But I think it leads to passivity. And once everything is catered to the lowest common denominator, it starts to get in the way of any usage out of the ordinary.

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Doesn't this also point the way to how FLOSS can win? Go ahead and have a config file with options for everything, but out-of-the-box everything should work, be smooth, attractive, and a joy to use. Create a more comfortable environment than the commercial options. Actually cater to the lowest common denominator.

I agree that this is the way. Fairphone, Pine, Librem, etc all try to provide their things along these lines. It would be great if we could make FOSS more profitable.

The whole point of technology is to improve our lives. What you call ‘comfort’, I call the entire point of the thing. If it takes more work to get a piece of technology to do what you want than it takes to do the thing without technology, why use it?

The expectation of comfort is why anyone pays for a service-and why people make them. What would you choose to do? Build all your furniture on your own, or get it built by a machine and pay for it?

That being said, I do feel that it does lead to passivity, particularly when there is a single dominant player in the market. Case in point: Office before GSuite.

It's a matter of definition, but I feel technology can do more than just make our lives more comfy. Anyway my point is that the chase for comfort can actually hurt us. Maybe we should try some carpentry?

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