- Obscurity. You make things easy by hiding underlying complexity. The simpler a tool, the harder it is (and the less relevant it becomes) to know how the tool works. Use increases while understanding decreases.
- When things are too easy, they lose meaning.
- More use may lead to waste. When things are easy to use, we use them more, and may consume more resources in the process. I wonder if households used a lot less water before washing machines were invented.
- This is especially bad if the additional consumed resources include our own time. I read somewhere that when the washing machine was invented, housewives actually spent more time doing laundry, because they could do so much more.
- So what's the lesson there? Be suspicious of products that are supposed to make your life easier. Or at least pay attention to whether they actually do.