We have to talk about the F word (“friction” in Enterprise, that is,)

Today everything is smooth. If you Park your carPresent Sell ​​your housePresent Beat the Drive-Thru Or there is a company that promises you to save you time and to eliminate all the problems you may encounter. Friction is the final form of the American cult of convenience – the highlight of the constant exertion in order to satisfy consumers’ wish for faster, easier and more complete satisfaction.

In the digital era, the friction is also a growth driver: the easier it is to use a product or service, the faster companies can expand their user base and extract the value. Reinloser product design, global consent tools, digital wallets and uniform registrations of giants such as Facebook and Google have companies expanded and sold without using users, wading through the data protection boiler or even entering payment details.

It is easy to see why investors love smoothly. (Try to find a pitch deck in Bay Area that not Promise to eliminate friction.) But our fetishization of frictionlessness has a price.

A slippery slope

Make things easy Was that Was digital Founding promise. In the mid -nineties, I helped create web products that provided the stock exchange quotes for clicking a meat. (It strikes that the business pages are inky-finger Down news pioneers Down deposit prices.) Other DOT com pioneers made it effortless to listen to music, shop, read news, relationships with Forging and much more.

Since then, mobile devices, uniform registrations, location services and more countless “automatic” solutions have made it possible for our problems. Personalized feeds provide content without Lift our fingers. Intelligent devices – speakers, cars, sunglasses, refrigerators – weave digital convenience through every aspect of our life. Now AI eliminates more friction: no need to write e -mails, read messages or think about everything.

However, the removal of friction is not a guarantee of success. Web Spectacularly failed Build a smooth immperium. Amazon spent large sums for Reinloser retail. Pre-Trump Zuck Flip-flopping with friction When Facebook tried to get involved as they were going to counter online.

In addition, the removal of friction has serious social consequences. Friction helps us to pause, to think and make better decisions. When Robinhood effortlessly made countless Americans wasted to the rush. Simple online bets The bankruptcy interest rates by 30%. More friction would have kept crowdstrike of Wall the computers in the world; helpful Extremist on social media; or Slogged the spread From opioids.

Even for individuals, there is not always a net profit. The transfer agency can mean elimination of friction. Algorithms provide selected content selected by changes for not us from us; Online retailers choose what we “discover” to control what we buy. Frictional lack of infantilized us; We hover like that People -bound people from Wall-ePassively record whatever we are served.

Strategic inconvenience

While it may be easier to get rich shovels in the receptive mouths of the unanimous consumers, companies that treat customers such as intelligent, strengthened and self -confident people will in the long run better than those who simply rely on their divility.

Steve Jobs understood the seduction of effortlessness – so his promise promises that Apple would do it.just work. ““ At the same time he understood the power of friction. When asked about the right way to collect customer data, he famous: “Ask them! Ask them every time. Let them tell them that they should stop asking if they are fed up with asking them. “Jobs supported a Goldillocks approach: Exactly the right amount of friction to create products that enjoy and count on their users.

By making companies the right balance, companies can use friction to their advantage. After all, friction is another word for Return message – So products that become completely smooth stop reacting to the needs of users. The striving for the lack of friction can bring you to heaven, but over time you will have difficulties to correct yourself. Finally, gravity will pull it back to earth.

This is not hypothetical: Studies show that friction makes many systems – including companies – more intelligent and resistant. A bit of strategic inconvenience can improve market performance with investors Make more intelligent decisions If you are forced to slow down and to think about shops. The IEX exchange feeds shops through a “magical shoe box” with miles from wrapped fiber optic cables. Create a delay of 350 miliseconds To stical to the effects of high frequency trade, which makes the markets more fair.

Cybersecurity teams sometimes Demanding human consent Before software automatically installs your intranet-you are deserted and make it more difficult for bad actors to kidnap the network. Data protection rules such as the GDPR now give friction in the form of consent and data protection notices and although too much counterproductive, a balanced approach gives consumers better informed and more control over their data.

Talk about friction

What does that mean for today’s founders? Obviously, we will not soon tense up smooth technologies – and we shouldn’t. However, what we should do is ask how we can Right size the friction In our products – or even transform friction into a business option.

For technologists, this means asking yourself: What problems do you solve through the elimination of friction – and what problems could you do now or in the future by doing this? Each design choice has compromises, but the balance of risks and rewards for the design for the right friction level enables both quick growth and long-term sustainability.

Such an approach could also make it easier to have talks about the need to regulate AI and other emerging technologies. Regulations Always add Fooling – but as soon as we accept that a certain friction can be valuable, we can work with the political decision -makers to find the correct friction to support innovations and at the same time protect and respect consumers.

Conclusion? Revomness as a sacred grail for digital products and services has backfired. It is time for a more differentiated approach and that begins with the fact that for technical founders and investors “friction” should not be a four-letter word. Only when we bring the friction back into the conversation can we help you to build up new technologies with growth potential, but also real endurance power.

Jennie Baird is chairman of The ethical tech project.