strict9

I assumed many or most were gone because of Amazon. But after having kids and getting gifts for birthday parties, I've learned there are a lot of them and they are doing healthy business. Almost always a line on weekends.

Many or most in line take advantage of free gift wrap because they're on their way to a party.

In many ways it is more convenient than Amazon because you're going out anyway, why not get it at the last second with careful gift wrapping.

But even a recent trip to the suburbs surprised me. The Lego store in the mall had a velvet rope and long line of kids waiting to get in. I had never seen anything like this and apparently it is usually this busy.

But it's not true that they are difficult to buy.

For my two examples: Commercial washer/dryer sets available through any appliance dealer. Commercial hospitality TVs and other commercial electronics are available via Grainger.

One way I've found to avoid objects that come alive is to buy the commercial version.

- TVs aimed at commercial hospitality businesses let you avoid a lot of the bloatware and smart features that come bundled with it

- Commercial washer/dryers let you avoid bluetooth and wifi and other junk not needed to wash your clothes. These are available without the coin operated features

Commercial versions of consumer products are usually simpler, more durable, and don't have advertising and smart features.

This is why those same mid level managers and C suite people are salivating over AI and mentioning it in every press release.

The reality is that costs are being reduced by replacing US teams with offshore teams. And the layoffs are being spun as a result of AI adoption.

AI tools for software development are here to stay and accelerate in the coming months and years and there will be advances. But cost reductions are largely realized via onshore/offshore replacement.

The remaining onshore teams must absorb much more slack and fixes and in a way end up being more productive.

Obviously there are a lot of reasons for this. But I think one of the most important reasons is that there is so few organic interesting content destinations anymore.

Sure there are some neat shopify stores, news sites, and a few dedicated souls keeping up blogs. But so much of the casual browsing that the web once was has been obliterated by the move to social media.

And what hasn't moved is now a mess of AI generated fluff or link farms.

I used to think Google made search worse to increase ad revenue. And maybe it's tangentially related. But the stuff I used to search for and find and get inspiration from has moved to walled gardens. Reddit is one of the few remaining open web destinations left.

AI can't solve that problem.