December 21, 2024Imagine a world where every platform you use, every service you consume, just… slowly degrades over time. It gets worse, little by little, until it’s almost unusable before you realize what happened. But it’s not a hypothetical… it’s the digital world we live in right now. Welcome to the Rot Economy ™.
Social media overwhelms you with ads instead of posts from friends. Streaming platforms gouge your wallet with convoluted subscription models that are a pain to cancel or change. Online retailers prioritize paid placements so aggressively that finding an honest product review feels like searching for buried treasure (and even then, it’s hard to know what’s a real person and what came from a bot).
It’s enough.
Ed Zitron absolutely nailed this phenomenon in a blistering critique. He describes how tech companies have “used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user.” He argues these companies are actively degrading the digital tools and platforms we once loved, all in service of endless growth.
“Everything must grow, at all costs, at all times, unrelentingly, even if it makes the technology we use every day consistently harmful.” This pursuit of infinite expansion leaves users to grapple with services designed not to empower or delight them… but to extract as much money, data, and attention as possible. The result? Platforms that are actively hostile to the people they claim to serve.
“Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and a majority of tech platforms are at war with the user, and, in the absence of any kind of consistent standards or effective regulations, the entire tech ecosystem has followed suit. A kind of Coalition of the Willing of the worst players in hyper-growth tech capitalism.”
At some point in time, these monopolies lost sight of their original missions — to connect people, to solve user problems, to delight consumers with great products that keep them wanting more… whatever. Now, all of it is a zero-sum attention game — we need you on OUR platform, not theirs, for as much time as humanly possible… every day, every week, every year… until ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There is no longer room for all of the platforms — if you’re getting attention, it’s at our expense, so we must crush you (if we can).
The goal is no longer to provide a great experience — it’s to keep you scrolling, no matter the cost to your well-being or the quality of what you’re consuming. Rot economy indeed.
Google Search is 10x worse than it used to be only a few years ago. What was once maybe one of the greatest inventions/algorithms humans had created now serves you endless slop, ads and sponsored posts instead of getting you real, vetted information easily. Facebook is basically unusable. I see almost no posts from my friends… it’s all ads, recommendations, sponsored posts… you get the idea.
But this wasn’t a foregone conclusion. This isn’t the only way it could have gone. Zuck could have said “screw you” to public markets and done whatever he wanted to because he has veto-proof voting control of his board. But instead of an awesome user experience like we used to have on Facebook… now I rarely use it (if ever).
Alphabet could have been content to monopolize search and keep it useful and delightful to use… but they didn’t. They enshittified it. This is the pattern of behavior for all the big tech companies and has been for years now.
At ENO8, this kind of user exploitation is the exact opposite of what we believe software should be. Software should serve its users. It should meet their needs, sure — but more than that, it should bring them joy. It’s why we approach product development with one guiding principle in mind: build for love, not just viability.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 100 times — “it’s the user, stupid.”
This is where our philosophy of Minimum Lovable Products (MLPs) shines. What’s an MLP? It’s the antithesis of the bare-minimum MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) so many companies default to. An MVP asks: “What’s the least we can do to get this out the door?” An MLP flips the script: “How can we build a smaller version of our ultimate scope that still delights our users?” What’s the most we can do to ensure users actually love this product (while still experimenting and shipping iterative versions)?
We’re not here to deliver just-good-enough solutions that frustrate users later. We’re here to build software people actually want to use — and want to come back to.
What does it take to create software users genuinely love? How do you avoid adding to the Rot Economy? It starts with listening. At ENO8, we invest deeply in understanding the people we’re designing for: their pain points, goals, and, most importantly, what excites them. Every feature, every design choice, and every interaction is calibrated to deliver value and delight — not irritation or confusion.
Some things we try to think about whenever we’re designing and building software:
Here’s the thing: the digital world doesn’t have to feel like this. Companies don’t have to exploit users for short-term gains. Platforms don’t have to prioritize profits at the expense of the people who use their products. But it requires more than just complaining about the “Rot Economy.” It takes intentional action to build something better.
At ENO8, we’re proud to be part of that better. We don’t cut corners, and we don’t chase trends. Instead, we focus on building products that serve people — not exploit them. Because at the end of the day, the best software isn’t just functional — it’s lovable.
Jeff Francis is a veteran entrepreneur and founder of Dallas-based digital product studio ENO8. Jeff founded ENO8 to empower companies of all sizes to design, develop and deliver innovative, impactful digital products. With more than 18 years working with early-stage startups, Jeff has a passion for creating and growing new businesses from the ground up, and has honed a unique ability to assist companies with aligning their technology product initiatives with real business outcomes.
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