S1E7 - A Use Case is a Trojan Horse

A use case is a solution to a problem they wish you had The gist: The tech industry has rejected the design process of starting with a purpose and deliberating over ways to satisfy it and, instead, latched on to a model of making the thing first and then deliberating over possible purposes it can satisfy. A use case is a solution to a problem they wish people had. This means that the use case will always be smaller than the thing that was created in the first place. There will always be additional baggage around the benefits the thing provides for any particular purpose. The health and emergency benefits of the apple watch serve as a good example because in order to access those benefits you have to buy a device which carries the baggage of ever-connectedness and luxury surveillance. Even if the use case is virtuous, like the health benefits of the apple watch, it is not the reason the product came into existence. The maker can't be trusted to adopt the importance you may hold for that use case because it would cost them attention to other use cases. LLMs are a prime example of reverse design deliberation because they exist purely as an invitation to find your own use case. This becomes the fool's errand because any use case you find will inheret the baggage of their problematic creation and continued effects. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.