srihari radhakrishna
i’ll never be able to think favorably about delivery apps like sw*ggy or z*pto despite the convenience because they grow when our cities antagonize people and segregate spaces based on class and wealth
it’s cringy to see tech & tech-adjacent folks get excited about “funding” and “unicorns” and the likes while we should actually be thinking about how tech can be positive in the longer run
maybe this is the best we could do? create more wealth almost selfishly by exploiting any and all opportunities, and wait for it to distribute and hope we don’t run out of resources in the meantime?
the innate gamification baked into these apps is crazy. there were folks on twitter who were ordering from z*pto only to validate their 10-minute promise. but also just the feedback loop of choosing food on the phone and having somebody pick it up, drive all the way and hand it over to you is incredibly gratifying in itself, not to mention the graphics and the sounds that please other senses. somebody suggested that the entire process induces a god complex