It's optimizing for a different type of convenience.

If I get a smart toaster, such as the Revolution Cooking Smart Toaster, then I'll get a bunch of nifty features: touchscreen controls, notifications on my phone when the slice is toasted, etc. It'll be nice and a lot of fun for a while. Initial experience is great. A year passes. The touchscreen fades. The wi-fi chip doesn't work with my new router. The notifications app doesn't work with my phone's OS upgrades. I'm jealous of the cool new model at my friend's house. I'll be shopping again in the near future.

Instead, I could get a complicated dumb toaster, such as the Panasonic FlashXpress. It's got a ton of buttons that all do different things. Every morning for the next three weeks is going to be an experiment; I'll need to learn the ins-and-outs. Eventually, I can play it like a musical instrument. From there, I'll be able to use it until it dies, probably ten-plus years. The toaster will not be something I think about, really, at all. It's just a tool that sits there and does the job well.

So here's the question. Do you prefer the immediate conveniences of using the latest and greatest, next year be damned? Or do you prefer the long-term convenience of not ever having to think about it?

I go the middle ground. I get a toaster that toasts with a dial that goes from 1 to 10, and set it to 4 for my toast.

Result: toast goodness.

I don't need a toaster like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec

The toaster I bought for $10 a couple of years back has 2 buttons (frozen and cancel) and a single dial.

I've never felt the need for more than that, I don't even use the frozen button.

That makes sense to me. In software design terms, this is a generalization of the single responsibility principle.

That being said, I there’s still plenty of room for smart appliances that are fault tolerant and degrade gracefully. I agree that most “smart” things on the market today fail to implement either of these features particularly well, but I see no fundamental reason why they couldn’t.

As far as toasters go, I’ve never owned one. I usually toast things in my oven or on a pan.

The strategy of locking consumers into a perpetual upgrade cycle? Profit and control.

The strategy of purchasing long-lasting, simpler devices? Cost saving over the long term and independence.

Honestly, despite the claims of IoT devices, usually time saving too. Time saved in setup, time saved in maintenance, sometimes even time saved just in general use.

not having to deal with distractions, malfunctioning devices, and over time saving quite a substantial amount of money I suppose.

The purpose of technology is to enhance and improve human interaction. When technology is perfect it is invisible. These smart devices are in a sense anti-technology, they're gadgets that occupy people's time and attention and get in the way.

The only product in the last decade that actually in my opinion is smart is the Kindle (or equivalent ereaders). It's like having a thousand books I can carry around with the weight of one, it lasts forever, I don't need a light to read, and otherwise I can forget that it is technology and actually just read books.

Kindle's 2007, it's in the same decade as modern smartphones.

I'm struggling to think of any new tech product from this decade that's really improved general life. I'm not that cynical, there's gotta be something. Maybe modern dashcams?

Creating cult.