Great essay. I’ve been thinking of this as a rise in “professionalizing” everything (I have neighbors who hire people to string up Christmas lights and decorate their tree) but this essay gets to the heart of it.

It’s a movement to a monoculture which, in every context, increases risk of failure. Plus it’s boring.

Edit: part two of the essay expresses this risk well: “… systems cannot really optimize; optimization leads to nonlinear increase in hidden risks which invariably blows up the apparatus.”