@Daojoan yes. Consider social networks: one funny meme every day must be enough for everybody. You exceed your quota, and that it is.

@Daojoan
I fully agree with the greater point. But I think the counterpart to Amazon is not Costco, but the local supermarket, or perhaps small-scale mall.

The same pressure applies: floor space is limited, so stockers have to be selective. They rely on customers returning, so they aim for a specific minimum quality level. But unlike Costco they do carry all the stuff you would normally need or be looking for.

@Daojoan i subscribe to the belief that if costco carries the product its likely to be a good purchase.

@Daojoan Costco is a corporation. What you're talking about is regulation. Corporations don't make very good regulators, for what I would think are obvious reasons. The whole purpose of representative democracy is fair regulation. Microsoft and Meta do exactly what you describe Costco as doing, Open AI is desperately trying to get in the same position, and we can see very clearly this is not the future we want.

@Daojoan

Devo got it right.

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

@Daojoan Good read, interesting perspective on the decision weariness of consumers, and lack of plentiful decision as an unnamed luxury. Thank you.

@Daojoan this was also how Steve Jobs saved Apple when he eliminated nearly the entire Mac product line up and only offered four major categories; consumer and professional notebooks and desktops, with few variants for each. That made the company’s offering extremely clear for consumers.

The company has far more products to offer these days and tries to cater to more segments, obfuscating that choice. One can argue the segmentation remains but it’s far less clearer than it used to be with a number of overlapping functions and purposes and consumers today have to take a longer time deciding on a purchase.