Frictionfulness
Why we need more friction in our lives, not less
No one has ever become obese by eating too many oranges. Their peel makes sure of that. It requires frictionful effort to peel oranges, or to avoid the stones of cherries, or to scoop the goodness out of kiwis — and we moderns despise few things more than expending effort. Much easier and much more satisfying to grab a handful of frictionless chocolate or crisps from the bowl. And another handful. And another…
Our snacking habits should, though, give us pause for thought. Can’t we see that the friction associated with fruit is good and the frictionlessness of the ultra-processed foods is highly problematic? Again, no one becomes obese through their consumption of fruit, but myriad do by consuming inordinate quantities of ultra-processed foods, which have been designed — from their ingredients to their packaging — to be as frictionless and addictive as possible. The frictionfulness of fruit is a shield, defending us from over-consumption; this friction should be celebrated and embraced, for it is good.
But, of course, being typical children of our age, you and I protest — as our shopping lists and diets bear witness.1 Purchasing, preparing, and consuming frictionful food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, is simply too much effort and too much inconvenience for many of us to bear. Our love of ease delights the marketers and makers of industrially produced food. Ever astute to our desires, they are eager to satisfy our demands for frictionlessness — which, of course, means more consumption and thus higher profits for them — hence the aisles upon aisles of ultra-processed foods in our supermarkets. And when we do feel the need to buy fruit, we need not worry: the food industrialists have even managed to provide us with pre-peeled oranges sold in plastic wrapping.2
The pre-removal of peel from oranges in the store, though a seemingly insignificant act, functions as a kind of parable illustrating a move our modern age has repeatedly and prolifically enacted upon nature. We have engineered, designed, and modified nature to be as convenient, efficient, and frictionless as possible, even if this involves substantially redesigning it or removing its intrinsic attributes which provide us with other goods. We make our rivers straight; breed our broiler chickens to mature at breakneck speeds; annihilate any creature that causes us the merest inconvenience; dispense with traditional breeds in favour of genetically modified ones; and turf our lawns with plastic grass. Never mind that many of these frictions and traits were there by design and for our good — we know better than the Maker.3
Our own bodies, lives, and societies have also drawn the attention of those promoting the “Big Plan for Frictionlessness”. We strive to get rid of every last bit of friction we come up against, optimising our lives to the nth degree and engineering our societies to be as efficient, convenient, and productive as possible — all to squeeze every last drop of pleasure and profit out of life. If someone or something is too much effort, we dispense with them without a second thought. And if the transhumanists get their way, soon the limitations and frictions of our own bodies will be done away with — we can stay young, fit, and strong forever; slowing down will be a thing of the past.
But are wisdom and benevolence the driving factors behind the “Big Plan for Frictionlessness”? Or is the Plan instead driven by greed, laziness, and discontent with limitations and effort? I think it is the later. As someone recently remarked to me, we easily forget that friction isn’t always bad; in fact sometimes it is essential (there is a reason walking on ice is hard!).4 And in much the same way that our war on limitations has destroyed much of what is essential for human flourishing, our war on friction has obliterated in our societies so much of what is good, beautiful, traditional, and so many opportunities for rich and convivial community — leaving us with a dull and empty (but highly efficient) shell of an existence.
Above all else, by declaring war on friction we have systematically removed one of the best defences we have against some of the most serious ecological and societal problems facing us today. From habitat destruction to attentional deficit disorders; from plain and ugly architecture to AI slop; from loneliness to water pollution; our desire for frictionlessness stands prominently behind them all. Thus, reinstating good and necessary friction into our lives, making them frictionful in ways that direct us towards the good life rather than making them a frictionless path towards greater industrialisation, is one of the greatest needs of today.
We must remember that though a frictionful life coheres strongly with the good life, and with sustainability, resilience, and maturity, it conflicts violently with the modern industrial life and its pseudo-virtues of hype-erfficienty, ease and standardisation that we all have been trained and conditioned to want. And it is here, my friends, that we really feel the friction: what we need is not what we want; and what we want is not what we need.
There is one place above all else that demonstrates this interplay between frictionfulness leading to the good life and frictionlessness leading to the industrial and unsustainable life: the supermarket. This place has been deliberately and skilfully designed to be as frictionless as possible: from dead straight aisles lined with neatly arranged packets of ultra-processed foods, to self-checkouts with contactless payment systems (and no annoyingly slow cashiers who might want a chat).5 The supermarket is set up so that you can buy as much as you want, in as little time as you want, with as much ease and convenience as you want. The supermarket is frictionlessness “placeified”.6
What the supermarket communicates is that buying and consuming food isn’t something we should take our time over; it is an insignificant part of our lives — merely a means of fuelling our bodies to do the more important tasks of entertaining ourselves and running on the hamster wheel that is industrial and technological working life.
What the supermarket achieves is even more insidious. It conditions and entices us to buy more than we need and can use (buy one get one free!); to consume more ultra-processed foods than is healthy; and to support with our money the industrial food system that is eroding traditions and goodness out of our agrarian landscapes by outcompeting small and local food producers, agrarian localist farmers, and independent shops.
Finally, all the extra time and money we “save” from quickly buying all this cheap food at the supermarket means we are able to consume more, more, and more of the other goods and services of our modern industrial world has to offer. As we do, we exacerbate the overconsumption of this limited planet’s limited resources and thus cause ever more damage to our precious local and global habitats.
If only we persisted more with the friction of buying well and “eating responsibly”.7 Then, this battered and bruised world might just begin to heal.
The question that may be on your mind is “this all sounds interesting, and perhaps even convincing, but how can I practically reinstate good friction back into my life?” There are many, many ways, but I offer here a few suggestions of things I myself am trying to do:
Firstly, increase your exposure and dependence on nature, integrating yourself closer to its seasons, rhythms — and delays. Learn the art of waiting patiently for what nature can provide and make your life more seasonal by consuming like a localist (eating or even growing more local fruit and vegetables). Also, seek to buy more products made from natural and frictionful materials such as wood and expend time and care in maintaining them.
Secondly, greatly increase your use of analogue and handheld tools over digital and electrical ones, such as using a pencil and paper to take notes; riding a cycle rather than a driving car for short journeys; using an axe or saw instead of power tools; and, for the hardcore agrarians, using a scythe rather than a mower. And try your utmost to avoid generative AI in creative pursuits if you want to preserve the goodness of human work.
Thirdly, buy more in-person rather than online and with cash. Not only does this help small businesses save on fees, but it puts obstacles in the way of your consumption and thus slows you down. Once you slow down and begin to think about the act of buying, you will be more likely to deliberate more over what you buy — and hopefully end up buying less and buying better. One of the most frictionless things in existence is “one click-ordering” — and few things have caused more damage to our bank balances and the sustainability of our planet than this.
In a similar vein, use in-person checkouts (when you do have to go to the supermarket) and embrace human conversation! Some of the most refreshing conversations I have had have been those with someone on the other side of a till.8 You will never get the same experience with self-checkout where the only time you are likely to hear a “human” voice is when the machine tells you “There is something unauthorised in the bagging area”.
Finally, learn the arts of mending and repairing instead of throwing away what can be made good again. Taking time to mend and repair is of the most frictionful activities known to man and is one of the most sustainable — and joyful. I am sure all those who have succeeded in repairing something, whether it be an old tool or a piece of clothing, can attest to the sense of deep achievement it brings.
These are just a few suggestions of frictionfulness. Use your imagination and think of more that suit your own lives and your own particular place.
All of us can look back and acknowledge it was through the hard and tough times in our lives that we grew and matured the most as a person. Likewise, it is through engaging and persisting with friction that we further mould our lives to conformity with the good life. Persisting with the friction is also a means by which we create, preserve, and enjoy the good and valuable things of this world — the things that may last into eternity.
The good life is a frictionful life — let us embrace it.
I don’t like doing this (as an Englishman who naturally shirks from self-promotion), but if you enjoyed this piece, consider giving it a like (the heart button). I ask this as in the age of wretched algorithms, the more likes a piece receives the more widely distributed it is to new audiences. Which helps this young writer a lot.
I am preaching to myself here.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/07/469521879/pre-peeled-oranges-what-some-call-lazy-others-call-a-lifesaver Though I do want to acknowledge that for some disabled people, this high level of pre-processing makes their lives easier.
We will, and have, paid the price for our folly and arrogance.
Thank you to Andrew Spencer for this.
German organic supermarkets are interesting in this regard. They incorporate curved aisles, dead-end corners, unpacked fruit and vegetables with dirt still on them, and many counters where you have to ask for meat, cheese etc. to be cut for you. All this communicates their food is valuable, high quality, and worth lingering over.
A word I coin to be the place-based version of personified.
Which is the advice Wendell Berry gives to urban folk who ask him what can they do? From The Pleasures of Eating.
Especially in book shops. Some of these conversations have lasted for quite some time and stories were shared!
I like this post, this idea, very much. What comes too easily, does not bring value.
We can see the destructive effects of social media newsfeeds, the tools which have removed friction from the process of broadcasting the news. Instead of more reliable information, we are drowning in a deluge of disinformation. A remedy: read selected papers and magazines, even online, but from the sources which provide professional, fact-checked journalism.
Great post Hadden. It has some similarities with what I wrote about modernity being about straight lines and flat earth, making life effortless and predictable. https://gardenearth.substack.com/p/the-blessing-and-the-curse-of-the