Some businesses—not all, and not even most!—don’t trust you. They design their products and marketing to lock you in and make you feel reliant on them.
The incentive for them is to have lots of steady customers; if you can come and go at any point, then that business isn’t as steady as it could be.
(The prevalence of the subscription pricing model is an example of this. And there are many businesses who are fighting back by offering a pay once model, which used to be the convention.)
These businesses and technologies alienate us not only from each other but also our inner selves.
For example, let’s say you’re writing with AI. The AI has improved to the degree that you can’t tell if you wrote something or the AI wrote it. What can you do to trust that you wrote a piece? (The simple answer: don’t use AI to write. That’s why I don’t use AI to write on this blog.)
When you trust yourself, you don’t need to trust a business. When you can rely on yourself, you don’t need to rely on a business.
You have a choice, and some businesses don’t trust you to choose them. So they are invested in getting you to rely on them, subscribe, and perhaps not reminding you that you have a choice to walk away.
And we are co-conspirators in this, because choosing to trust yourself also requires change and learning. It’s hard work. It’s much easier to outsource the responsibility. We are glad to pay an ignorance premium.
My suggestion is to always remember that you have a choice. In that spirit, there’s a saying, “Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.” You may need to work harder to be independent; in some cases, it’s worth it.
Thanks first to Rachel for writing this great post on AI and alienation, as well as Matt and August for their posts.