When Everything Comes to You

00:00 — Convenience Changes the Default

Hey, welcome back to Slow Builds.

This video is more about convenience.

I talked before about how AI, software, all the things that are happening kind of make everything becomes like utility.

So this video is not…

It’s about convenience in a way, really.

But not in a simple convenience is good or convenience is a bad way.

I use this stuff too.

Amazon food delivery, easy returns, all of it.

So this is not me pretending I’m above it.

The thing I keep thinking about is more subtle than that.

More and more of life is being designed, so we do not have to leave the house.

Shopping comes to us, food comes to us, groceries come to us.

Returns are handled, but almost zero effort and zero thinking about it.

Work can come through laptops and phones and whatever else.

Meetings can happen through a screen.

Entertainment’s already in your hand.

And now even random little cravings can show up at your door.

At first, it feels amazing, but convenience is useful.

It saves time, energy, when you’re busy, too tired.

If you’re sick, you can avoid people and spreading diseases.

If you don’t have a car, if your life is just too full.

But I also think there’s a quiet cost to all this because some of the friction we are removing was not just inconvenience.

Some of it was movement, structure, a reason to go outside, a reason to see people.

And some of it was a reason to participate in the physical world, just to be part of it and active and mentally.

And when everything comes to you, those things do not happen automatically anymore.

You have to choose them on purpose.

And that is what this video is kind of about.

Not that convenience is bad, but that convenience changes the default.

And once the default changes, we change too.

02:03 — Amazon and the One-Click Habit

And Amazon is probably the clearest example, at least for me, because it did not feel like some giant social shift at first.

It just felt useful.

You needed something, you searched for it, ordered it, one click by, and eventually it showed up.

Even back when we first had it where we are, like shipping took like a week or four days or something like that, it wasn’t a big deal.

But especially, but there’s a difference between driving around looking for something and just ordering it.

Even if you have to wait because it removes the hunt and the use of gas, it removes the uncertainty.

And the prime, and then prime, like with two day shipping, now that’s pretty much everywhere and almost, most things are almost like next day.

The speed became part of the habit.

You stop thinking, “I should go see if the store has it.”

You start thinking, “I’ll just order it.”

That shift matters because running to the store is not actually one action, it’s a chain of actions.

You get ready, find your keys, get in the car, deal with traffic, gas, parking, walking through the store, looking for the item, wrong size, trying to order it from them.

The cost is more than you expected and then like the whole thing becomes this

Becomes a lot of friction basically an Amazon could press a lot of that into a single button

And then they worked on the return side of it

And that is the part that really changed the entire loop for me in my mind

Because online shopping used to have a penalty if the item was wrong returning was was annoying

You had to worry about paying and worry about the shipping the labels all that stuff

Yeah, but now

Returns have become so easy

Sometimes you barely need to pack you don’t even have the package you what Amazon sometimes. There’s a local drop-off point

The whole thing feels way too simple

So now the loop is smooth need something order it arrives wrong thing return it

Order another one every time that loop gets easier the old habit gets weaker the old habit was I need something

I should go somewhere the new habit is I need something I should just check my phone

That is a massive massive change in my mind not because one Amazon order change your life

But because millions of small decisions start pointing in the same direction less going out less browsing

Less asking someone in the store walking around carrying things parking

less moving through the world and more waiting for the world to come to you.

04:45 — Food Delivery and Moving Cravings

And then food delivery takes it to even further really what Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and then throw in Postmates.

All of those services normalize something that used to feel like a treat.

Restaurants, food showing up at your house.

At first that was mostly pizza, Chinese food,

A few local places that already had delivery now it can be anything fast food coffee sushi desserts

groceries just random snacks

And in some places almost anything you can think of I remember the first time I realized I could get

movie theater popcorn from the movie theater

And that one struck me pretty hard because it’s such a small ridiculous example.

It’s not medicine or groceries

There’s nothing urgent.

It’s just the popcorn you buy when you go to the movies

It’s usually a real treat

But now I can just click a button and it shows up my house so I can watch a movie at home

So now you got candy drinks cravings, and I’m not saying that to judge it.

I understand it

Sometimes you want the thing but it shows up for it shows how far the expectation has moved

The old version was if I want that I have to go there

The new version is if I want that maybe someone can bring it to me and that’s a very different mental model because now the question is not

Is it worth leaving the house for the question becomes can I get it delivered?

How long is it going to take?

And if the answer is yes, the barrier drops if it’s not just food.

It’s a desire become

It is desire becoming logistical

You want something and the system figures out how to move it.

That is what these apps are really doing

They’re not just food apps movement apps

They are movement apps.

They they move once they move cravings.

They move small impulses through the city

Someone else drives someone else waits someone else parks someone else carries it and you stay where you are

That is convenient, but it’s also changes your relationship the world outside the door

06:53 — Outsourcing the Physical Act of Living

TaskRabbit, an errand service part of the same pattern because once food and produce can come to you the next thing is labor.

Someone can assemble it, someone could pick it up, drop it off, they can take care of everything like you order on IKEA, it shows up, they pick it up, they put it together, they get rid of the garbage, they leave.

And someone can wait in line for you, someone can do the small tasks you don’t want to do.

And again, there are real benefits here.

Some people do not have the time, the ability, they don’t have the tools.

Some people just really overwhelmed elderly people, disabled people.

Some people are working too many hours, so they just need that break.

So I don’t know what to pretend the old way was always better.

A lot of friction was just friction.

A lot of errands were just annoying.

A lot of inconvenience was not character building was just inefficient.

But when enough of these services start stacked together, life starts to feel different.

Amazon brings the product food apps bring the meal grocery delivery, delivery brings all your groceries to stock, you can even get tasks rabbit, they do the services and the labor and they can even like put the groceries in the cupboards for you in the fridge, right apps bring the cars remote work brings the office streaming brings the entertainment.

So in the world not something you you’ve got to go into as much as you used to.

It is something routed to you and that feels like progress and in many ways it is but it also means we are outsourcing more of the physical act of living.

Before robotaxi fully arrives we already have a version of transportation as utility.

It’s not just always transporting us, it’s transporting our wants and that is part that feels bigger than anyone at.

We are building a world where the first question is not where do I need to go it is can I get this can I make someone bring it to me and this is where Wally always go back to Wally the movie.

08:57 — WALL-E and Optional Movement

Because I think the future is literally people floating around in chairs while robots do everything because Wally exaggerates something that already exists.

Everything comes to them food entertainment movement information

Comfort they do not really have to do anything and the movie works because the direction is recognizable

We already understand the temptation why why move if something can come to you

Why cook if I can just order it?

Why leave the house if the house contains everything I want and I can have or if it doesn’t I can have it brought to me.

And again, it’s not always bad.

I don’t want to say that there are cases where this is important and it makes a big difference.

But if it becomes a default for everything, the movement becomes optional.

And when movement becomes optional, a lot of people will move less not because they’re lazy, not because they’re bad people or bad habits, because the environment no longer requires it.

And that is important part.

We like to frame this as individual discipline.

But a lot of movement used to be built in the life.

You walk through the stores, you walk through the grocery store, carrying your groceries, bring them to your car, returning stuff, going to the office.

You move between places.

You stood in lines, you ran errands, you interacted with people.

It was just life.

And now more than more of that can be removed.

And once it’s removed, you have to rebuild it intentionally.

And that is hard because intentional movement requires a decision.

The old friction mode made some of those decisions for you.

Now you have to do it yourself.

10:32 — Using Errands as a Reason to Move

And I noticed this with myself.

Sometimes I use I use errands as an excuse to ride my bike.

I have to return something.

I might bike there.

If I get to get some small groceries I’ll bike there.

And some if something’s local I might just I might choose to get it myself.

Not because I have to.

That is the whole point.

I usually do not have to.

I could probably make it easier.

I could order more, I could get more delivery, I could sit at home and let the system do more of it.

But the errand gives me a reason to move.

It gives me a reason to get outside, it gives small purpose and that matters because going for a bike ride, just to go for a bike ride is good but sometimes it’s easier when there’s a reason attached to it.

Drop this off, pick it up, go get that, take the scenic way, move your body because the task gives you

Excuse and I think that is one of the hidden lot losses when everything comes to us.

We lose excuses

We lose small reasons we lose the friction that pushes us into motion and then we wonder why everything feels more

It just doesn’t feel right like we wonder why people feel more isolated

We wonder why the day has less is as less

Shape to it and again, I’m not blaming delivery apps for all of that

That would be too simple

But I do think the pattern matters if life keeps removing reasons to move then we have to create reasons ourselves

12:03 — Convenience Can Hide the Real Cost

There’s also money side to this too and I don’t want to go too deep into it

But and this is probably like I said, it’s gonna be I could probably build a whole video on it

But it’s hard not to mention it because when everything is one tap away

It gets easier to confuse access with affordability.

Just because you can order does not mean you can afford it.

Just because the app lets you move, have it, does not mean your budget can absorb it.

Food delivery is expensive.

There’s tips, there’s service fees.

Menu prices are normally higher.

Sometimes the total is almost absorbed compared to picking it up yourself.

But the friction is so low that you can use it.

And I think that is where people get into trouble.

You see people eating out all the time.

I tell my kids it’s the worst way.

That’s the killer of your finances right there.

Ordering in all the time, getting coffee delivered, getting snacks, buying things constantly.

And it is easy to wonder how are people affording this?

And the uncomfortable answer may be a lot of them are not.

They are using credit, they’re carrying balances, they’re using the buy now, pay later.

Like everyone, I want this McDonald’s and I’ll pay $3 a month for the next six months to get this Big Mac.

I say that because my kid has a friend who just did that.

And it’s like, what are you doing?

They’re not seeing the full costs because each purchase feels small in the moment.

Convenience can hide costs.

And that is one of the dangers.

When you physically go somewhere, there’s no friction.

You have to decide is it worth the trip.

You have to get up, you have to drive, you have to wait,

You have to check the prices, you have to scan your card, you have to carry it home.

With apps, the purchase can feel less real, tap, confirm, wait.

That’s really it and that is very dangerous because the system is very good at making the desire feel reasonable.

I want it, it is available, I can have it.

That loop is not neutral.

It trains expectations and over time, it can make ordinary waiting feel unacceptable.

14:08 — Convenience Can Also Be Access

And, but there’s another side to it too.

Convenience can give people freedom.

And this is the good part about it.

I do not want this video to turn into some old man complaining about delivery apps, because this is not the point.

For some people, these services are genuinely helpful for the elderly, grocery delivery, task rapid to put stuff away.

For the disability, same thing.

Delivering reduces a real barrier that a lot of them have.

If you’re sick, getting food and medicine and not spreading it and being able to recover.

If you are a parent with young kids, not dragging everything through the store and reducing that stress and not,

reducing the stress ’cause when you bring your kids to the store and things get out of control, you start yelling, so it reduces a lot of anger and stuff like that also.

If you do not drive, these services can open up full access to everything that you normally have to rely on a ride and extra complications on top of simple tasks.

That burden’s gone.

If you live somewhere with limited options, online shopping brings you things that allows you, allows you to have that normally you would either have to pay extraordinary prices for and just not be able to get.

So it’s not that simple.

Convenience is not automatically bad.

Sometimes convenience is dignity.

Sometimes it’s access, relief.

Sometimes it’s the thing that makes life manageable.

And that is why I think the better question is not, it’s convenience good or bad.

The better question is, what happens when convenience becomes a default?

Because when it is used intentionally, it can help.

But when it becomes automatic, it can hollow out parts of life without us noticing.

And that is the balance I’m trying to think through.

15:56 — When the World No Longer Forces You

Maybe the future is not that we stop doing everything.

Maybe the future is that we stop being forced to do as much.

And in a lot of ways that is good because it also puts more responsibility on us because the world no longer forces you to move.

You have to choose movement.

If the world no longer forces you to leave your house, you gotta make that mental choice to get up and go out.

If the world no longer forces you to wait, you have to build patience somewhere else.

If it doesn’t force,

if the world no longer forces you to delay purchases, you have to create financial boundaries for yourself.

And that is not easy because friction used to do some of that work for us.

Not perfectly, not always fairly, but it did.

The store being closed made you wait.

The long drive made you reconsider.

The effort of going out made you ask if you really need it.

The physical lack of shopping made spending feel more real.

The errand gave you a reason to move.

When those barriers disappear, some things get better and some things get harder, just in a quieter way.

And that is the trade off I keep thinking about.

It means it removes friction, but some friction was giving us movement.

Some friction was giving us structure.

Some friction was giving us contact with the real world and other people.

And everything comes to us.

The movement effort and participation become choices.

And maybe that is the future.

Not that we cannot do things anymore, but that we no longer have to.

And once we no longer have to, we have to be honest about what we still choose to do.

We have to be conscious about it.

We have to put systems in our own way to force us to do these things.

We have to watch our budget.

We have to physically move.

We have to pay attention.

And I think that’s a big thing.

17:51 — AI, Utility, and What Comes Next

And then there’s another part to this video that I’m going to add about you know you

AIs utility along the same thing so this one’s a really about the convenience of it

And how it forces us to look at the world a little different

when we add in a whole other aspect of that of of how AI and robots and

The way things are become more of a utility because there is right now.

There is a friction and

and a hesitation say just from grocery shopping.

And I think there’s a way of profiles and AI

and the way we can build that out

to make that more consistent.

So anyway, thanks for watching