Have you gone shopping lately? I mean actual shopping. Like you went to a store, looked around, and bought something. Almost all of our shopping experiences have moved online, including groceries! So it might take you a second to recall the last time you experienced something akin to customer service. Remember now?
How good was the service?
For a long time, my answer was "It was alright". Now? Abysmal. Terrible. God-awful. And the sad part is... it's not going to get better anytime soon.
The bar for service has dropped so low, just acknowledging a customer's presence sets you apart from the standard fare of service-people in the United States. For those that work in customer service, it's never been easier to make someone's day!
But it's not just customer service. It's everything! Everything, everyone, everywhere is succumbing to the siren song of enshittification. Yes, it's a word and good one at that!
I'm expanding the meaning of this word beyond it's original target, online platforms. It's literally everything.
How can this be?
We have Doordash, Uber, AirBnB, Zillow, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube, on and on and on. As a society, we have packaged up the most potent forms of convenience and entertainment and main-lined it into our stomachs and brains. Put simply:
We don't have to try anymore.
And it shows.
And yet, we've never been more exhausted, distracted, and for many of us (myself included), unaccomplished.
Whenever I find myself doom-scrolling X or LinkedIn, I will inevitably find someone telling me "it's never been easier to stand out! Everyone around you is barely trying! Take action!" They're not wrong. It's good advice. But feeling good about whatever menial action you've managed to take against something that's been enshittified is like the dopamine hits you get from social media. It's fleeting. It doesn't matter. It's not real.
"Comparison is the thief of joy." A quote often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. It's also the thief of your potential.
When you compare yourself to those who are at the top of whatever game you're playing, of course that's a recipe for misery. But the opposite comparison is just as debilitating and far more seductive! "Well, at least I'm better than that!"
Have we fallen so far that any morsel of movement in a positive direction is cause for a celebration? When was the last time you did something hard? Something that you had never done before? That's a worthy comparison. Compare you against the previous you. Weigh yourself in the balance.
Don't compare yourself, your business, or anything else to the enshittified. And if you do, resist the urge to feel accomplished. Much like the feeling you get when you finally put your phone down, it'll hit you.
"I better get to work."
How good was the service?
For a long time, my answer was "It was alright". Now? Abysmal. Terrible. God-awful. And the sad part is... it's not going to get better anytime soon.
The bar for service has dropped so low, just acknowledging a customer's presence sets you apart from the standard fare of service-people in the United States. For those that work in customer service, it's never been easier to make someone's day!
But it's not just customer service. It's everything! Everything, everyone, everywhere is succumbing to the siren song of enshittification. Yes, it's a word and good one at that!
I'm expanding the meaning of this word beyond it's original target, online platforms. It's literally everything.
How can this be?
We have Doordash, Uber, AirBnB, Zillow, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube, on and on and on. As a society, we have packaged up the most potent forms of convenience and entertainment and main-lined it into our stomachs and brains. Put simply:
We don't have to try anymore.
And it shows.
And yet, we've never been more exhausted, distracted, and for many of us (myself included), unaccomplished.
Whenever I find myself doom-scrolling X or LinkedIn, I will inevitably find someone telling me "it's never been easier to stand out! Everyone around you is barely trying! Take action!" They're not wrong. It's good advice. But feeling good about whatever menial action you've managed to take against something that's been enshittified is like the dopamine hits you get from social media. It's fleeting. It doesn't matter. It's not real.
"Comparison is the thief of joy." A quote often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. It's also the thief of your potential.
When you compare yourself to those who are at the top of whatever game you're playing, of course that's a recipe for misery. But the opposite comparison is just as debilitating and far more seductive! "Well, at least I'm better than that!"
Have we fallen so far that any morsel of movement in a positive direction is cause for a celebration? When was the last time you did something hard? Something that you had never done before? That's a worthy comparison. Compare you against the previous you. Weigh yourself in the balance.
Don't compare yourself, your business, or anything else to the enshittified. And if you do, resist the urge to feel accomplished. Much like the feeling you get when you finally put your phone down, it'll hit you.
"I better get to work."