The unbearable fussiness of the smart home
In that same time period, my &quot;plant light&quot; timer, a $15 mechanical item of a design unmodified since the 1970s, has worked flawlessly, requiring attention only when the clocks change or my schedule does. It has not informed Google, Amazon, or anyone else about its job or anything else in my home. It has generated no royalties nor invoked any support or ongoing maintenance costs. It has never needed a software upgrade.<p>&quot;Smart Home&quot; stuff even since the &quot;x10&quot; standards has been a solution looking for a problem to solve. A hobby for the homeowner who wants to ride the high side of the Laffer curve in effort and expense. It could be argued that quiet, flawless functioning of these products would be exactly what the customer <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> want in this product space.<p>Compare it to model trains: is that hobby focused around having a lovely little table set up and watching the trains run? Or is the actual focus the torn up mess that&#x27;s under construction and &quot;we can&#x27;t play with it right now but i can get it assembled to show the kids by Tuesday&quot;.