By grethental @Adobe Stock
“Intelligence moves out to the edge of the network.”
In the WSJ, Andy Kessler discusses the “New Frontier of individualism,” not an instant replay. It’s been a long time a’coming.
No operator? No problem. Dial your own phone. The same holds true for pumping your own gas, planning your own retirement, or trading your own stocks. Kessler calls it the “You Do” economy.
Technology Eats People
… replacing low-end jobs, has turned this trend into a runaway train. We use self-checkout lines at grocery stores. Airlines prefer if we check in ourselves and either show or print our own boarding passes. Airline kiosks spit out baggage tags that often take a doctorate to figure out how to attach. Hotels want us to check in and out ourselves (though I always forget to print out the bill so I can expense it). Need customer service? Forget it. Read the FAQ. Or go watch a video on YouTube. Else we’re on hold for 45 minutes, minimum.
When was the last time you were in a store to buy clothing or shoes? Well, yes, you have a point. It probably wouldn’t have your size or the color you really want. Amazon, as frightening as it can be, will deliver the goods seemingly before you shut down your computer.
Cash Is Dead
When was the last time you were unable to buy something because you didn’t have enough money with you? No problem there. Just whip out your credit card.
What’s a Menu, Gramps?
Remember when Covid was transmitted via paper? That put a final nail in restaurant menus. Now, you scan QR codes so you can squint at menus on your phones.
Today we install our own updates, and we’re even subject to buggy beta software, so we have to find all the problems instead of quality-assurance teams doing the job. We install a dozen streaming services instead of the old cable feed. Changing shows means almost acrobatic precision presses on our remote.
Like Sheep to the Slaughter
We do our own taxes, even though the Internal Revenue Service has virtually all our financial information already. We need to be our own health advocates. All this takes more time, and time is money. It’s unpaid work for all of us.
When readers wonder why Mr. Kessler seems to be complaining, he objects. He’s not complaining. Does he seem like he wants the old days back: cuddled, coddled, comforted? Those decisionless days? One size fits all? Gone.
The You Do Economy is the embodiment of pushback against those telling us what to do. We’re in charge now.
It’s coming fast, furious and personal. Choice. Freedom. Worth it even if it’s more work. We’re all free-range now. And we’re” free-market”, as the sum of our individual decisions are point progress in the right direction. We’re empowered. We’re in an increasingly self-governed, self-taught, self-insured and self-driven world.
Are you feeling nostalgic for easier times, like you’re living in a giant homeowners association, where your every move first needed permission?
No longer, Baby.
… life is no longer a packaged tour, following a guide holding a red flag. It isn’t “The Love Boat” with cruise director Julie McCoy telling us the day’s activities. Walled gardens such as America Online were training wheels for the real world. Now it’s the Wild West—an American rugged individualism. Embrace it.
Like it or not, the “intelligence at the edge” is you and me, councils Mr. Kessler
We’re quickly replacing centralized control. We’re unpaid but free. Annoyed? Get over it. Freedom’s just another word for nothing to lose by doing it your way. We’re unfettered and enfranchised. You do you.
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