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I wish this observation would be confined to software - it's basically the most annoying - defining - aspect of capitalism. It's on one side the engineers and designers trying to do something for their own sake - and on the other side it's the constant encouragement to change something about a product to lure customers into purchasing the new "improved" version of ... the jeans, the car, the shoes - you name it.

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There is an accompanying ideology that regards a proliferation of choices as an emerging consequence of greater multiculturalism/individuality. This is a very convenient analysis for market apologists, and more importantly, it puts off a kind of anxiety-filled absolute reckoning of reason and utility in our decision making. If we were more rational we would likely have to confront an essential emptiness...or maybe that's just how it seems to those of us embedded in the prevailing values.

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