Haha haha
The Guardian: Why would anyone want a smart fridge?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/nov/15/smart-fridge-internet-appliance
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@cobalt123 I know oil changes are supposed to be the entry point to engine maintenance but that's one task I never did myself even when I was broke. Getting under the car, ensuring no mess, and $ for filter/oil & safe disposal was a lot of effort (and oil changes used to be cheaper).
@bolderbekah @cobalt123 @paperposts @mazz @ai6yr yeah, I can change the oil in the car but it's filthy and there's little upside to doing it
happily the EV doesn't require oil
@sarae @bolderbekah @cobalt123 @paperposts @mazz I have to change the oil in my truck. It's not hard. Physically. But I haven't done it yet, lol, because it is definitely filthy. I even have ALL the parts stacked in a pile ready for me to do the oil change.
@ai6yr The only people who want surveillance appliances are people who don't understand that they are surveillance appliances.
@ai6yr i remember that the smart fridge was the holy grail of IOT back in the early, every single IOT ‘strategy’ deck had some hilarious scenario of the fridge ‘knowing’ you were out of milk and ordering it for you.
every single UX person i knew responded to it as that’s great and all “but I buy milk before i run out so i have it in the morning” or “but what if i don’t want it” etc.
such a narrow case fantasy of a user need to disguise implementing stealth leasing infrastructure
@paperposts @ai6yr it is a microsom of what a bunch of tech folks think “smart” tech should be
Digital servants / stay at home moms
They want tech to do all the stuff they don’t know how to do that moms (and servants) have been doing in homes around the world for millennium - keeping the larder stocked, planning meals, cleaning the home, planning the family schedules etc.
But they rarely actually have a real understanding of cooking let alone grocery shopping
@Rycaut @paperposts @ai6yr I used to call these "mommy tech" bros. they would come to SF in waves a propose something their mom used to do for them. whenever someone did something community oriented or shared, they would bust in and say no the relationship should be one to one with tech, where that tech shifted the power of parental authority over a child to a young dude instead and without the caring part.
It’s even more systemic than that. I loosely knew some young techie guys whose plan involved making laundromats somewhat nicer and more efficient. They did well in a university competition and made it to an actual venture capital hearing and were dismissed by “but everyone has a private washing machine”.
@clew @flyingpenguin @paperposts @ai6yr this is VCs projecting their own lifestyle and needs are universal. Which is very very very common. (I have relatives who are VCs).
It’s a fundamental mistake but it is a universally common one as well. It’s somewhat also a class and geographic bias - most VCs (in California) live in single family homes in smaller satellite towns/suburbs here in the Bay Area (a few live in SF itself) they are rarely urban dwellers in smaller apartments or older homes
@Rycaut @clew @flyingpenguin @paperposts I have been professional, immediately adjacent to that industry (1 degree from a fair number of the people you read about in the news), and the ones I know who lived in their Atherton mansions or in Beverly Hills, or in their Malibu hideaways most certainly have a very different look at what the world is about, and judge what needs are in a similar way. (thus the perpetual lack of funding as well of companies serving other populations). Single family homes? Suburbs? They don't TALK to those people.
@flyingpenguin @paperposts @ai6yr and they don’t really want a real mom who cares and teaches and forces their kids to learn life skills.
They want the “mom” as replacement for all the servants in the great house (think Downton Abbey) where the tech is a housekeeper, maid, butler, and chauffeur.
@paperposts @Rycaut @ai6yr The only jobs people think AI can do are the jobs they don't have any experience doing themselves
Which ... hahaha, billionaires think AI can do it all. What does that say about them? 😅
@paperposts @ai6yr “Tell me your fridge was engineered by someone who doesn’t do his shopping without telling me etc.”
@paperposts @mazz In my former life, I published interviews with a lot of these people, and I recall one where someone had founded a company to deliver mostly-ready meals (ie just need to microwave/heat it up or maybe mix things together) because they had gone their ENTIRE LIFE EATING OUT or ordering delivery, and then they had a baby and realized they couldn't cook ANYTHING. So they decided a startup to deliver "ready to microwave/cook" meals was the ticket.
@mazz @paperposts I used to be very close to some of this... The number of startups founded by people who have no clue about what they are supposedly founding a startup to "fix" is... very high. The number of companies I have seen in my career that are "I don't know ANYTHING about this industry, but it's ripe to be disrupted, we're going to be the Google/Facebook/Yelp/Uber/etc. of the <insert industry here>" is very high.
@ai6yr @mazz @paperposts I don't remember what even it was but I remember the quote post "congratulations a$$h.... you just invented the BUS"
