When tools get easier, work can feel less yours?

talk
1

I keep noticing this with AI and design software: the smoother the tool gets, the less I feel like I actually touched the result. It saves time, but it can also sand off the little decisions that make a thing feel personal.

Maybe that is fine for some work. But for creative tools, I wonder if a bit of friction is what helps people feel ownership in the first place.

2

Hmm yeah, I feel this even in dev tooling — when everything becomes one-click, you stop making the tiny tradeoffs and it starts feeling like the tool performed and you just watched. a little friction is like practicing scales: annoying, but it’s where your taste actually shows up.