Friction

Full Title or Meme

Freedom from Friction is often the goal of designers of digital systems. Carried to extremes it is always a very bad idea.

History

• Revolutions against the oppressive regimes in France of the 1790's lead to the Jacobins and a reign of terror. There was no friction between accusing someone of royalist sympathies and the guillotine.
• In the 1920's freedom of expression gave us the roaring twenties.
• In the 1960's freedom of expression was carried to extremes in a backlash against societal ills like discrimination.
• In the 1990's freedom from regulation

Reactions

An article in 1996 titled Friction-Free Economy Rhetoric Holds a Time Bomb described the results to be expected from friction-free movement of many. The introduction of this in the 2020's has proven that the warning was both true and ignored.