Why Does Everything Suck Right Now?

...We have the smartest thinkers in the world with unlimited budgets whose sole stated goal is to make good, useful technology. To me that must mean that there is an unstated goal of silicon valley that is an inhibiting force to making useful, elegant technology that enriches lives.

If you substitute the morality of an entity for a human you're trading in an elaborate multi-faceted miracle for a simulacrum. They've boiled the primary goal of a corporation down to the sole goal of creating more values for its shareholders. Maybe this is good for a physical item with several competitors in the marketplace (though this is only for argument's sake, I believe this system to be an abject failure) if a corporate entity is put in charge of an ongoing service - especially one who by nature of its structure is nearly impossible to create competition for, it is an abomination.

If you have a coffee shop and your product is good enough to maintain a following, you do everything you can to maintain and expand your relationship with your customers. If you don't nurture the relationship your customers may find a new coffee shop... or switch to tea. Currently there aren't sufficient market forces to create fair competition in the highest levels of tech.  When you create a product in this environment your goal is to create a product good enough to indoctrinate a fanbase and then to find every way to warp the relationship in the favor of your bottom line.

I think this is the universal reason that all good tech begins simple and transparent and evolves incessantly into a confusing array of unnecessary features and diminishing functionality. It's alarming but not surprising to find that these companies are directly responsible for genocides, political turmoil and human strife... The core principle driving the companies has no relationship to the laws of physics. Infinite growth of anything isn't sustainable in our closed ecosystems and yet those in the positions to do the most are operating as if it were possible.