Most users just don’t care, and power users will eventually learn to use better tools.
It’s the exact same rational behind airlines charging the same, but offering ludicrously valuable loyalty programs.
User behavior changes based off of these outcomes, and the short-term hyper focus on metrics to the detriment of the long term usability will eventually have detrimental effects, and behavior will change, and we’ll get better alternatives.
Re: Netflix. Actually, most people just want to consume slop. The popularity of reality TV proves this. Now they can consume slop with their whole family for $16/mo instead of $80/mo with cable. This is an objectively better outcome, and does not preclude studios from putting out genuinely incredible works of art. I have seen some incredible movies. A24 keeps pumping out bangers, Perfect Days and Look Back were some of my other faves from this year.
But I agree with the author that the state of things isn’t “ideal”. I’m just offering a perspective that the whole world doesn’t fucking suck completely and maybe you’re being melodramatic and overly pessimistic.
I don't understand the economics of cable TV, but I wouldn't say it has less "slop" than Netflix. Despite everything, the average quality on Netflix is higher than cable, while still being a fraction of the cost. I say this as someone who recently canceled Netflix because of the cost increases.
I don't understand TV at all. There's like a handful of legitimately good, amazing stories, and the rest of it is just samey derivative nonsense. Just light and noise people apparently put on because the sounds of their lives when it's off are too depressing. I have never bought TV in my life and that decision is validated every time I turn it on in a hotel room, holy shit. I feel dumber immediately.
This goes triple for the fact that Netflix now apparently designs their shows on purpose so you can follow along while looking at you're phone. Like holy fuck, just watching television is apparently too demanding an activity for some people now.
I’m an avid reader and it’s 80% shit there too. Nice thing about that is you can usually tell after chapters one or two and Kindle lets you have free samples before you buy. The main giveaway is poorly crafted prose or cliches. If I make it two or three chapters and the prose is not shit and the plot and/or characters are interesting it’s generally a decent book.
> Re: Netflix. Actually, most people just want to consume slop.
I think most popular services have reached an equilibrium where they’re providing more or less what their user base wants to consume.
I’ve read a lot of elaborate theories about how companies are making big mistakes in their product offerings because they aren’t catering to exactly what the author thinks they want. However, most times the author just has different preferences than the average consumer.
This story repeats across industries. I see complaints about shows on Netflix, content on YouTube, trending topics on TikTok, and even the food selection at McDonald’s. Most of the time the answer is simply that these companies know what customers want better than random bloggers and pundits.
HBO has a habit of canceling my favorite shows, because my taste runs to challenging high budget shows which have trouble maintaining the viewership required to justify the cost. Examples: Carnivale and Raised by Wolves.
They are companies; their business is making money, not art. The latter is the means to the end.
Here's an interesting thought experiment: if we removed the profit motive, would McDonald's exist? Because virtually everyone involved in a McDonald's doesn't particularly like it, in my experience. I've never once (well, past the age of 10 anyway) gone to a McDonald's excited to be there. We end up there when some combination of:
1) Bad life experiences
2) Other restaurants being busy
3) My wife and I are too mentally wrecked to cook food
Has occurred. It's not a good thing. We're there because it's (relatively) cheap, it probably won't make us sick, and it's reasonably fast.
It's also worth noting that a bunch of the above happens specifically because both ourselves and every other business we engage with, including our employers, is also subject to the profit motive, and that's probably contributing to our being in a McDonald's in the first place. Anyway...
The McDonald's franchisee wants to own a business, for their own economic benefit. Would they have started a McDonald's if not for the profit motive? Or would they have started a different business, one they'd be more proud of or innately interested in?
The McDonald's worker certainly doesn't want to be there. The pop culture version is this is a pimply kid wanting money for high school parties and the like, but they're also increasingly comprised of working low-income adults. They don't wanna be there, they have to be, or their landlord's profit motive will cost them their home. And they're certainly not happy to be doing what they're doing. I've never seen a McDonald's worker in my life who's proud of the product they serve. And they shouldn't be, it's minimum-viable-food.
I say all of this to say: the person who owns the McDonald's isn't happy about it, apart from the money they make from it. If they do. The person making and selling McDonald's food isn't happy. The person buying McDonald's food isn't happy (unless they're a small kid). So like... what is this for? How many of these restaurants operate? A quick google says 41,800. 41,800 restaurants, owned by people who don't necessarily want to own a restaurant, staffed by people who don't want to staff one, selling food people don't like, to people who probably don't want it, apart from it being a good alternative to not eating.
How much human effort goes into the concept of McDonald's on the daily? To do something nobody wants to do? To make and distribute food that nobody seems to actually like?
I enjoy McDonald’s food. Sounds like you really need to get out of your elite bubble more.
Sure everyone wishes they were wealthy enough to do whatever they want but that isn’t reality.
Flipping burgers is better than working at the slaughterhouse. Owning a McDonald’s is better than 9-5 desk job. So in that sense yes these people very much want these roles.
> I enjoy McDonald’s food. Sounds like you really need to get out of your elite bubble more.
You should leave yours to be honest. I'm not talking expensive restaurants here. There's a bunch of places I can think of off the top of my head in my relatively small and semi-rural tiny ass city that would cost ballpark the same as a coupon-less McDonalds that utterly wreck McDonalds.
There's a hole-in-the-wall burger joint about 10 minutes from my house by bike, that serves the best smash burgers I've ever had, and if you're feeling spendy they have an angus steak burger for like $12, the most expensive thing on the menu, and it tastes like ground angel wings. So good.
If you're not feeling a burger, we have 2 different local Mexican places. You'll definitely pay more than McDs but you can also easily leave with enough leftovers for 2 additional meals if you portion it out correctly. That's the hardest part though because I've ordered probably 2/3 of what's on their menus at this point and it's all incredible.
Or, if you're really hard up for cash, to be honest our go-to is increasingly Taco Bell, the only fast food titan still standing that respects your wallet in my experience, that hasn't jumped on trying to be Chipotle with shittier ingredients. And yeah the food isn't great, sure, but they rotate menu items in and out so there's usually something new, and the prices are shockingly reasonable.
Like I'm not even saying McDonalds is bad. It's... aggressively fine. I don't think it's good enough for the prices they are asking now, I think it was in about 2007? But nowadays if you and your spouse both get a combo you're looking at easily breaking $25, and I'm sorry, it is not that good at all IMO. Especially since it's not low odds at all your sandwich is gonna look like someone assembled it from across the room for a TikTok video.
Airlines should be a federal service like the post office, not for profit companies cramming the poor like sardines and scamming them over baggage space.
Most users just don’t care, and power users will eventually learn to use better tools.
It’s the exact same rational behind airlines charging the same, but offering ludicrously valuable loyalty programs.
User behavior changes based off of these outcomes, and the short-term hyper focus on metrics to the detriment of the long term usability will eventually have detrimental effects, and behavior will change, and we’ll get better alternatives.
Re: Netflix. Actually, most people just want to consume slop. The popularity of reality TV proves this. Now they can consume slop with their whole family for $16/mo instead of $80/mo with cable. This is an objectively better outcome, and does not preclude studios from putting out genuinely incredible works of art. I have seen some incredible movies. A24 keeps pumping out bangers, Perfect Days and Look Back were some of my other faves from this year.
But I agree with the author that the state of things isn’t “ideal”. I’m just offering a perspective that the whole world doesn’t fucking suck completely and maybe you’re being melodramatic and overly pessimistic.