On the subject of the complexity of technology (James Gaskin sent me this link)
It's important not to be sucked into the narrowmindedness of a Luddite. The reason manufacturers put too many features in your phone is that you needed feature 'F' and that got combined with features 'A' through 'Z' to aggregate demand for all the phone buyers needed to justify the manufacturer's R&D for the phone. Since they can't possibly make only 'F' phones, you need to trip over the user interface for all the other features (some of which are mutually exclusive, contradictory and inconsistent - oops!)
There is a great book on the subject: Inmates Are Running The Asylum. (I'll try to rescue it from whereever Beth Ann hides my unfinished books and finish it.)
One consequence is The Long Tail.
More tomorrow.
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