Factory Sandwiches

I feel like I’m exiting hyperspace every time I need to communicate with a client or wait on a stakeholder to state the next requirement. It feels totally natural to say this is just the cost of doing business. Humans and human taste are what counts.

Except I actually disagree, because of factory-made sandwiches.

The economy is a force unto itself. It isn’t designed to fit around humans. We’ve been contorting people to fit it for hundreds of years. And I think pretty soon AI will graft onto economic needs far better than people can. At which point the question becomes how to avoid including humans in loops entirely.

I’ve used this analogy in conversations at work, including on an internal corporate podcast. If you can do an 80% version at 1,000 times the efficiency, at some point it’s obvious the 20% wasn’t worth holding out for. There will still be niches. But they become rarefied categories. Hand-woven baskets. Horse riding as recreation.

Some software thinks it’s a hand-woven basket when it’s actually a plastic bag.

The idea that output must conform to artisanal concerns is being given to us by artisans like myself. Who might get sidelined quite soon for economic reasons.