Owning It
Hello friends,
Tech folks talk a lot about the benefits of the access economy and the inevitable time when “friction goes away.”
There are a lot of good ways that tech has enabled access and reduced friction in our lives, like the Airbnb experience for the majority of hosts and guests, or the similar service that’s allowed my friend to rent out his little boat on the weekends he doesn’t use it, enabling him to offset the cost of boat ownership. Plus, other people who couldn’t or wouldn’t want to own a boat (most people!) can occasionally get themselves out on the water for a day, which is pretty cool.
As this idea - and the software to support it - swells, tech-enabled access to goods and services puts less of a premium on ownership of those things, which some people argue is for the good - you can offset costs, like the boat, and you can be relieved of the work of maintaining your home, bicycle, car, clothes, and pillows and throw blankets (really!).
I’m not so sure. Ownership can benefit us, and not just in a building-equity kind of way. When we own something, we have to care for and maintain that thing. I think there’s something fundamentally human about caring for things we own, like our homes or our bicycles or our furniture.
You might say that the maintenance work that comes with ownership gives us a chance to practice caring. You might also say that it’s boring drudgery, which some of it is. All kinds of care can feel like that sometimes.
Similarly, when we remove all friction (really inconvenience, in the context of tech-enabled services) from our individual lives, with apps like UberEats or Amazon Prime, life’s irritants (going to the store) get smoothed out. I might get my dinner delivered quickly and not have to do any meal prep, cooking, or cleaning, so I gain that time back. If I’m working a lot, I’m grateful for that open time. But I can’t help but think about the downside of eliminating inconvenience from our lives (besides limiting our ability to practice staying cool while dealing with other, bigger types of friction) as ruthlessly as some tech companies suggest we should.
Someone has to do the prep and cooking, warehouse-stocking or delivery-driving so I can get my dinner on time and my toilet paper and toothpaste delivered overnight. When we outsource this kind of labor, it’s typically to underpaid contract workers in unsafe working conditions. Health insurance and predictable schedules are not always part of the job. I don’t love this.
I also wonder about what we’re enabling when we remove friction and the care and maintenance required by ownership. Maybe what’s being masked, in the name of ease and productivity, is a demanding economy that requires us do more with less, year over year over year. Requires us to work longer hours, take up side hustles, monetize our hobbies. We’re smoothing a path, but where is it headed?
In a piece called “Ownership is Resistance,” writer Paul Jarvis talks about taking back control of the work we put out via the internet, where a lot of sharing now takes place on platforms we can’t control. From borrowing platforms on which to spend money or share ideas, to allowing tech companies to take control of our personal data, he argues that “what we do not own, we do not have sovereignty over.”
I’d also say - if we find ways to streamline our lives without always outsourcing that streamlining through an app, or take time to care for something we own in order to maintain it and keep it nice, we are being productive, but just for us - these practices can’t really be monetized, optimized, or captured as data.
And that’s worth something.
CARE FOR
In this section, I highlight stuff that gets me thinking about the forms and functions of care and how we express it. Have something you want to share? Tell me!
OUR SELVES: Watching Bill Hader dance (and lip synch!) is waaay up there on my list of self care practices.
EACH OTHER: So moved by this woman who’s out there giving care and feeding to our most vulnerable neighbors.
THE PLANET: In the U.S.,Coal companies are declaring bankruptcy, and renewables are on the rise. But globally, fossil fuels are still the cheapest option. :(
WE ALL GOTTA EAT
It’s true. Here’s one thing I’m cooking these days:
I’m convinced chickpeas can do anything. Vegans use the cooking liquid (aka agua faba) as an egg replacement. Socca are delightful (and gluten-free) flatbreads made from chickpeas flour. Simple to make, too.
As for the legumes themselves, here are a few ways I’ve loved them recently:
Tossed them into pasta with olives, loads of garlic, a few spoonfuls of crushed tomatoes, and a whole lot of chopped parsley.
Simmered them with coconut milk, ginger, a cubed sweet potato, some finely chopped kale, and a spoonful of curry paste to serve over jasmine rice.
Fried them until crispy and tossed them into a kale salad with roasted squash and a salted yogurt dressing.
Happy Friday!
XO
Leigh