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Against Convenience: Embracing Friction in an Age of Endless Ease
From seasoned journalist and critic Gabe Bullard, a provocative exploration of modern “convenience culture” – and how we can resist and reclaim our time, resilience, and happiness, for fans of How to Do Nothing and The Courage to Be Disliked.
We live in a world addicted to convenience. Countless tools and innovations fill our daily lives, allowing us to swipe, tap, click, and subscribe without a second ordering groceries to your door, calling an Uber for a ride up the block, or scrolling the endless songs and TV shows at our fingertips. In theory, convenience can leave us with more energy and time to do what we want to do, save us resources, and complete tasks with less effort than before.
But what if we aren’t actually accomplishing any of those things?
Expert journalist Gabe Bullard reveals an entire hidden architecture behind the ubiquitous modern-day services and technologies that allegedly make our lives easier. At best, many of them aren’t actually convenient at all, and at their worst, they compromise our physical and mental well-being and lead to shallower relationships, lower quality life and art, and a degraded planet.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
We live in a world addicted to convenience. Countless tools and innovations fill our daily lives, allowing us to swipe, tap, click, and subscribe without a second ordering groceries to your door, calling an Uber for a ride up the block, or scrolling the endless songs and TV shows at our fingertips. In theory, convenience can leave us with more energy and time to do what we want to do, save us resources, and complete tasks with less effort than before.
But what if we aren’t actually accomplishing any of those things?
Expert journalist Gabe Bullard reveals an entire hidden architecture behind the ubiquitous modern-day services and technologies that allegedly make our lives easier. At best, many of them aren’t actually convenient at all, and at their worst, they compromise our physical and mental well-being and lead to shallower relationships, lower quality life and art, and a degraded planet.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 10, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
October 17, 2026
It’s one of those books that’s infecting - how I think about the world around me and the conversations I’m having with people - it’s a work that gives so much opportunity to take the ideas and see where it leads you. The writing is great, so much attention to detail while never straying far from the analysis, and for anyone looking to pick this up: you absolutely cannot skip the introduction
October 19, 2026
I absolutely loved this book. It gave me so much to think about and contextualized a lot of my feelings towards a lot of the "convenient" technologies we use on a day-to-day basis. Bullard takes a hard look at them and encourages readers to decide for themselves which are truly making their lives better. There is no prescriptive answer or shaming of readers who use these things; indeed, it would be a surprise if we didn't use smartphones, rideshares, or social media. Many of us are already aware of the way all of these have crept into daily life, but perhaps not of all the hidden costs. For example, I was aware that using generative AI implied a heavy usage of natural resources; but I was not aware that cookies also carry a similar cost. (I've never felt better about opting out of cookies - something I chose to do a couple of years ago, despite the fact that it certainly makes surfing the web "less convenient.")
For me the most impactful chapter was the one on arts and entertainment. Bullard covers topics from the move from "art" to "content," how consuming music algorithmically can change the way we interact with it, and how subscription models make us feel like we need to consume the content they give us even when we might not want the specific show/song/film. Especially as someone on the periphery of the publishing world (an avid reader and book reviewer), it make me think hard about how I consume and review books. (A quick example is how posting about a well-known book gets a lot of engagement on social media, while highlighting an indie book will get crickets. But how else are people supposed to learn about new books if we're all posting about the same ones?)
I do not always like listening to books read by their authors - but I thought Bullard did a really great job with the subject. The book is written in first person, and I appreciated the personal look into the choices "away from convenience" he has made for his own personal life, even if I might not make the same ones. It felt like the final recommendation - a framework for readers to use to determine which conveniences they actually want to embrace instead of simply accepting them - was something that everyone could use.
Highly recommend.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the book.
For me the most impactful chapter was the one on arts and entertainment. Bullard covers topics from the move from "art" to "content," how consuming music algorithmically can change the way we interact with it, and how subscription models make us feel like we need to consume the content they give us even when we might not want the specific show/song/film. Especially as someone on the periphery of the publishing world (an avid reader and book reviewer), it make me think hard about how I consume and review books. (A quick example is how posting about a well-known book gets a lot of engagement on social media, while highlighting an indie book will get crickets. But how else are people supposed to learn about new books if we're all posting about the same ones?)
I do not always like listening to books read by their authors - but I thought Bullard did a really great job with the subject. The book is written in first person, and I appreciated the personal look into the choices "away from convenience" he has made for his own personal life, even if I might not make the same ones. It felt like the final recommendation - a framework for readers to use to determine which conveniences they actually want to embrace instead of simply accepting them - was something that everyone could use.
Highly recommend.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the book.
September 7, 2026
"The grim thing about seeing people be nostalgic for a past you remember is realizing that soon people will be nostalgic for the time we're in now."
What an interesting take on how society relies on convenience in today's day. At the root of this is the concept of technology, but the commentary is less about the machines and more about how people have grown so accustomed to the "easy way" of doing things.
This was a quick read, and I highly recommend the audiobook because Gabe Bullard narrates his own book and makes the whole thing feel like a podcast. Enjoy!
“Technology has provided new ways to connect to and disconnect from more people at greater speed and with less effort."
What an interesting take on how society relies on convenience in today's day. At the root of this is the concept of technology, but the commentary is less about the machines and more about how people have grown so accustomed to the "easy way" of doing things.
This was a quick read, and I highly recommend the audiobook because Gabe Bullard narrates his own book and makes the whole thing feel like a podcast. Enjoy!
“Technology has provided new ways to connect to and disconnect from more people at greater speed and with less effort."
October 23, 2026
Listened to this as an audiobook and it read like a podcast. Love this style of book over a self help book. Gave me a lot of food for thought and I’m inspired to make little protests against convenience
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
It Has Been A While Since I've Seen Someone Actively Praise Luddites. Until Now. Seriously, the title of this review pretty well sums up most of what you need to know about this book... that you could likely have figured out the gist of just from the title, subtitle, and description - at least as they exist roughly a month or so before publication, as I write this review.
Even from a - wildly - "left of center" (at least in US politics) approach, this book actually does a rather remarkable job of being a polemic without feeling like one. It is absolutely a polemic in that the entire purpose of this *really* extended essay is to specifically attack what Bullard calls "conveniences" but are more accurately "technology companies making decisions and becoming too popular to easily find another alternative". But it is also a polemic that openly questions even itself at times.
While still openly praising Luddism.
Go figure.
From a documentation side, this clocks in at a solid 30% of the overall text - meeting the Sagan Standard (extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence), which likely does apply here. Perhaps cherry picked a touch, again, this is also one text where perhaps the evidence cited doesn't always make Bullard's case as strongly as he claims it does.
Ultimately this book absolutely reads more as an invitation to personal consideration than a hellfire sermon. It is going to ask you to consider the things it labels as conveniences and whether those things are truly worth it to you. Some of those things - electronic medical records that make every doc you use (so long as they use the same systems) able to see your entire medical history at a glance - are absolutely worth it and literally saved my wife's life just a couple of months ago. Perhaps others - the social media I actively declared my independence from a month ago and now that a certain couple of important-to-me events are concluded I am more pro-actively leaving - will be less so. The physical eBooks (because *all* books are nothing more than a collection of electrons arranged in a particular pattern and I refuse to slaughter forests for my personal amusement or education) that can carry more volumes than the Library at Alexandria in the palm of my hand? Bullard will argue that they are soulless and are causing the downfall of humanity. I will tell you that I've read more books *because* of these devices than I ever read back in my "dead tree era", *and* that the average price per book I've paid over literally thousands of such transactions over the last 15 years is a small fraction of what I would have had to pay - both monetarily and in regards to environmental degradation - to get those same volumes on the carcasses of murdered trees.
Regardless, Bullard does a pretty solid job here of exploring some of the contours of what a lot of this could look like, even if from a certain exacting perspective. Yet at the end of the day, while Bullard perhaps gives a voice to some of what some are thinking that maybe didn't have that voice - which alone is useful - this really comes down to Bullard actively writing a book that, well, very nearly anyone could have. But he actively did, and did a pretty solid amount of research to back his arguments, so if you're inclined to read such a polemic... well, this one will be available for all in and after mid September 2026.
To be clear, the star deduction here is specifically because of the distinction between "convenience" and "agency". Bullard's entire thesis, he claims, is about "convenience", except that it really isn't. It is about *agency* and being able to more easily make the active choice to use technology or not. This distinction is key, and that he misses it informs quite a bit of the rest of the slant to this entire text. Still, because Bullard does such a good job of being more of an exploration and a question rather than a dictum and exclamation, the key miss at the central thesis doesn't hurt as much as it could have and still results in a thoughtful, if misguided, examination that invites the reader to reflect for themselves on their own lives and priorities.
Very much recommended.
Even from a - wildly - "left of center" (at least in US politics) approach, this book actually does a rather remarkable job of being a polemic without feeling like one. It is absolutely a polemic in that the entire purpose of this *really* extended essay is to specifically attack what Bullard calls "conveniences" but are more accurately "technology companies making decisions and becoming too popular to easily find another alternative". But it is also a polemic that openly questions even itself at times.
While still openly praising Luddism.
Go figure.
From a documentation side, this clocks in at a solid 30% of the overall text - meeting the Sagan Standard (extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence), which likely does apply here. Perhaps cherry picked a touch, again, this is also one text where perhaps the evidence cited doesn't always make Bullard's case as strongly as he claims it does.
Ultimately this book absolutely reads more as an invitation to personal consideration than a hellfire sermon. It is going to ask you to consider the things it labels as conveniences and whether those things are truly worth it to you. Some of those things - electronic medical records that make every doc you use (so long as they use the same systems) able to see your entire medical history at a glance - are absolutely worth it and literally saved my wife's life just a couple of months ago. Perhaps others - the social media I actively declared my independence from a month ago and now that a certain couple of important-to-me events are concluded I am more pro-actively leaving - will be less so. The physical eBooks (because *all* books are nothing more than a collection of electrons arranged in a particular pattern and I refuse to slaughter forests for my personal amusement or education) that can carry more volumes than the Library at Alexandria in the palm of my hand? Bullard will argue that they are soulless and are causing the downfall of humanity. I will tell you that I've read more books *because* of these devices than I ever read back in my "dead tree era", *and* that the average price per book I've paid over literally thousands of such transactions over the last 15 years is a small fraction of what I would have had to pay - both monetarily and in regards to environmental degradation - to get those same volumes on the carcasses of murdered trees.
Regardless, Bullard does a pretty solid job here of exploring some of the contours of what a lot of this could look like, even if from a certain exacting perspective. Yet at the end of the day, while Bullard perhaps gives a voice to some of what some are thinking that maybe didn't have that voice - which alone is useful - this really comes down to Bullard actively writing a book that, well, very nearly anyone could have. But he actively did, and did a pretty solid amount of research to back his arguments, so if you're inclined to read such a polemic... well, this one will be available for all in and after mid September 2026.
To be clear, the star deduction here is specifically because of the distinction between "convenience" and "agency". Bullard's entire thesis, he claims, is about "convenience", except that it really isn't. It is about *agency* and being able to more easily make the active choice to use technology or not. This distinction is key, and that he misses it informs quite a bit of the rest of the slant to this entire text. Still, because Bullard does such a good job of being more of an exploration and a question rather than a dictum and exclamation, the key miss at the central thesis doesn't hurt as much as it could have and still results in a thoughtful, if misguided, examination that invites the reader to reflect for themselves on their own lives and priorities.
Very much recommended.
September 12, 2026
This was really thought-provoking. The title of the book tells you what you need to know about its contents, or so I thought.
What I appreciated most about this author’s “take” was that it wasn’t someone waxing poetic about the downfall of society or how convenience is killing us. Instead, he explores the drawbacks, pitfalls, and ways things aren’t always as they seem, while also acknowledging that he himself actively uses many of these same items.
Rather than telling the reader what they should or shouldn’t use, the book lays out the information so you can become educated on the topic and make decisions based on your own personal situation. Many books of this type can end up being an ableist mess, but this one does not. I appreciated that Bullard makes it clear from near the beginning that it isn’t an all-or-nothing situation and that people use things for different reasons. Most importantly, what is one person’s “convenience” is literally another person’s necessity.
He doesn’t dismiss how technology and various products have completely changed the lives of disabled individuals, or suggest that access should be taken away under the guise of some campaign to save the earth.
Instead, the focus is on personal decision-making and sorting through how different things work, planned obsolescence, and how to figure out whether you actually need something or whether it’s genuinely making your life easier. It also looks at the impact those choices can have on the environment and society.
There isn’t one right answer, and I think that’s what this book does such a great job of acknowledging. It opens the conversation and gives you the information to think critically about your choices, while ultimately leaving you to take personal responsibility for what you consume.
I read this as an immersion read with an early finished copy provided by Hanover Square Press as well as the audio ALC from Harper Audio via NetGalley. It was narrated by the author who did a great job!
What I appreciated most about this author’s “take” was that it wasn’t someone waxing poetic about the downfall of society or how convenience is killing us. Instead, he explores the drawbacks, pitfalls, and ways things aren’t always as they seem, while also acknowledging that he himself actively uses many of these same items.
Rather than telling the reader what they should or shouldn’t use, the book lays out the information so you can become educated on the topic and make decisions based on your own personal situation. Many books of this type can end up being an ableist mess, but this one does not. I appreciated that Bullard makes it clear from near the beginning that it isn’t an all-or-nothing situation and that people use things for different reasons. Most importantly, what is one person’s “convenience” is literally another person’s necessity.
He doesn’t dismiss how technology and various products have completely changed the lives of disabled individuals, or suggest that access should be taken away under the guise of some campaign to save the earth.
Instead, the focus is on personal decision-making and sorting through how different things work, planned obsolescence, and how to figure out whether you actually need something or whether it’s genuinely making your life easier. It also looks at the impact those choices can have on the environment and society.
There isn’t one right answer, and I think that’s what this book does such a great job of acknowledging. It opens the conversation and gives you the information to think critically about your choices, while ultimately leaving you to take personal responsibility for what you consume.
I read this as an immersion read with an early finished copy provided by Hanover Square Press as well as the audio ALC from Harper Audio via NetGalley. It was narrated by the author who did a great job!
October 13, 2026
Decent read. Not just finger wagging about using technology. This is a realistic and depressing analysis of what convenience does to us and spoiler: it doesn't actually make your life easier. And at the same time it enriches the oligarchs while stripping the labor class of their wealth. Tech conveniences just isolate you from your community and are basically making us all antisocial selfish little weirdos.
September 16, 2026
*Thank you to Libro.FM for the ALC!*
This book was a very timely read for me. I've read many books about the negative effects that social media has had on mental health, children's development, social skills, and society as a whole. Bullard's analysis of convenience reaches far beyond social media, including the ways we shop, use transportation, order food, and communicate in the twenty-first century. I felt very overdue for a meaningful look at my consumption habits, materially and digitally.
A society centered around maximizing consumer convenience ultimately serves to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. People of the lowest socioeconomic status have their humanity stripped away through consumers' willful ignorance and corporations' greed in the name of ease and maximum profit. Technological advancements increasingly serve to fix the problems of other technologies we've come to believe we need and keep us further from face-to-face interactions rather than make truly meaningful contributions to quality of life.
A life centered around doing everything from your device to avoid the inconvenience of an actual conversation or human interaction is not the sign of a technological utopia. Neither is using AI chatbots to create art, facilitate connection, or communicate. No matter how much we think we may need a convenience to keep ourselves afloat, there's a good chance that that very convenience is keeping us from meaningful connection and thought on the other side.
This book was a very timely read for me. I've read many books about the negative effects that social media has had on mental health, children's development, social skills, and society as a whole. Bullard's analysis of convenience reaches far beyond social media, including the ways we shop, use transportation, order food, and communicate in the twenty-first century. I felt very overdue for a meaningful look at my consumption habits, materially and digitally.
A society centered around maximizing consumer convenience ultimately serves to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. People of the lowest socioeconomic status have their humanity stripped away through consumers' willful ignorance and corporations' greed in the name of ease and maximum profit. Technological advancements increasingly serve to fix the problems of other technologies we've come to believe we need and keep us further from face-to-face interactions rather than make truly meaningful contributions to quality of life.
A life centered around doing everything from your device to avoid the inconvenience of an actual conversation or human interaction is not the sign of a technological utopia. Neither is using AI chatbots to create art, facilitate connection, or communicate. No matter how much we think we may need a convenience to keep ourselves afloat, there's a good chance that that very convenience is keeping us from meaningful connection and thought on the other side.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
An incredible listen that will make you think deeply about your own life and relationship to the world around you.
I remember when I went from a fully WFH job to a hybrid job in 2023 how much joy I got from the small interactions I had in my commute. That was when I first started thinking about how technology had been isolating me from the world, and I was so excited to think more about this by picking up this book.
This book pairs well with the book Enshittification by Cory Doctorow (the book is cited in Against Convenience) but instead of focusing on the wrong the companies are doing, it turns the issue to "how are we enabling this?" Now, that sounds like it is putting the onus on the individual rather than these multi-million/billion dollar companies. However, Bullard explicitly says this is not what he is doing -- he just acknowledges that the only control we have is over our own choices. And this isn't just to make the world around us a better place, but to make our own interactions and relationships with the world better.
I absolutely loved this book, and I will likely be listening to it again in the future. Highly recommend.
Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I remember when I went from a fully WFH job to a hybrid job in 2023 how much joy I got from the small interactions I had in my commute. That was when I first started thinking about how technology had been isolating me from the world, and I was so excited to think more about this by picking up this book.
This book pairs well with the book Enshittification by Cory Doctorow (the book is cited in Against Convenience) but instead of focusing on the wrong the companies are doing, it turns the issue to "how are we enabling this?" Now, that sounds like it is putting the onus on the individual rather than these multi-million/billion dollar companies. However, Bullard explicitly says this is not what he is doing -- he just acknowledges that the only control we have is over our own choices. And this isn't just to make the world around us a better place, but to make our own interactions and relationships with the world better.
I absolutely loved this book, and I will likely be listening to it again in the future. Highly recommend.
Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 19, 2026
I really support the premise of this book; however, I enjoyed the essays and interviews the author did for promotion better than the book itself. It had a little too much "back in my day" and could be overall be condensed (hence why the abbreviated formats worked well).
September 26, 2026
Really liked this! Currently reading Enshittification by Cory Doctorow, and I would recommend this to fans of that- and vice versa
June 11, 2026
Smart and thought-provoking— my copy is full of underlines and notes. Most important, Bullard presents the data and his arguments without coming across as a scold. We’ve been sold so many lies about conveniences, and this book will make you pause and ask yourself, is it worth it?
September 29, 2026
For me, the best part of this book is in this paragraph:
As someone who, like so many, is trying to reduce my dependence on my phone and the hold my screen has over my life, I felt this deeply. I’ve never had to break my addiction to TikTok because I’ve never downloaded it in the first place, and I don’t miss ChatGPT because I never used it to begin with. If only I had known how something like Instagram would get its claws into me; it’s so much easier not to start than it is to quit.
For the most part, this is a solid book. As the title indicates, Bullard writes “against convenience,” arguing that the friction that technology has eased has often been what makes our lives interesting and our actions meaningful. Sure, some applications have genuinely improved our days for the better, and some things we can know aren’t the best for us can still be the occasional treat, but he lays out a strong case for the need for friction, for boredom, for difficulty that is more useful to us and to our world in the long run than a new gadget or app update.
Now, some of this is self-evident. And some lays a bit too little blame on the consumer (obviously corporations are mostly at fault for endless “upgrades,” but Bullard writes about getting seven smartphones, five laptops, and four tablets in a decade and a half… I’ve had less than half that number in the same time, so even planned obsolescence doesn’t force your hand as badly as he might posit).
And there are a few digressions that I feel stray too far from the thesis; the angle that convenient news access leads to fake news and clickbait as bad actors take advantage of endless doomscrolling and companies that profit from clicks and ad sales try to draw eyes is correct, but felt like too much of a tangent in the way it was laid out.
But I like that, despite arguing “against convenience,” Bullard doesn’t rail against modern life or “kids these days” but instead offers the pros and cons that can help the reader decide which conveniences we *really* need, and which might be worth taking the time to live without.
“I feel this way about generative Al. It hasn't made anything on par with the art its programmers used to train their tech. Even if it does, I doubt I'll be interested. I wish I'd had this skepticism with many of the conveniences I've grown used to, because giving them up isn't easy now (I've deleted and reinstalled certain apps too many times to count). I didn't need to usher the old alternatives out of my life so quickly. I don't have to pretend to be happy with the result.”
As someone who, like so many, is trying to reduce my dependence on my phone and the hold my screen has over my life, I felt this deeply. I’ve never had to break my addiction to TikTok because I’ve never downloaded it in the first place, and I don’t miss ChatGPT because I never used it to begin with. If only I had known how something like Instagram would get its claws into me; it’s so much easier not to start than it is to quit.
For the most part, this is a solid book. As the title indicates, Bullard writes “against convenience,” arguing that the friction that technology has eased has often been what makes our lives interesting and our actions meaningful. Sure, some applications have genuinely improved our days for the better, and some things we can know aren’t the best for us can still be the occasional treat, but he lays out a strong case for the need for friction, for boredom, for difficulty that is more useful to us and to our world in the long run than a new gadget or app update.
Now, some of this is self-evident. And some lays a bit too little blame on the consumer (obviously corporations are mostly at fault for endless “upgrades,” but Bullard writes about getting seven smartphones, five laptops, and four tablets in a decade and a half… I’ve had less than half that number in the same time, so even planned obsolescence doesn’t force your hand as badly as he might posit).
And there are a few digressions that I feel stray too far from the thesis; the angle that convenient news access leads to fake news and clickbait as bad actors take advantage of endless doomscrolling and companies that profit from clicks and ad sales try to draw eyes is correct, but felt like too much of a tangent in the way it was laid out.
But I like that, despite arguing “against convenience,” Bullard doesn’t rail against modern life or “kids these days” but instead offers the pros and cons that can help the reader decide which conveniences we *really* need, and which might be worth taking the time to live without.
October 31, 2026
𝑨𝑮𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑻 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑽𝑬𝑵𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬
𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒆
𝒃𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒃𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒅
And now I need to process!
I will say, this is a bit like preaching to the choir, but who doesn't like their ideas packaged in a studied and polished way?!
Over 15 years ago, my husband and I created our "Need Less Project." We felt like we were getting swept up into buying things we didn't need and it was not making our lives better. There was a lot more to our decision, but this book has been a great reminder and reset to slow down & think more about purchases.
We are bombarded by messages selling us items and systems that are supposed to make life easier. We rarely take time to examine what that ease for us might cost someone else, or what long-term cost may come from that short term ease. While not everything is a zero-sum-game, Bullard brings up many of the ways convenience has isolated us and cut off so many social connecting points, beyond the costs to low-wage or even slave-labor, or the costs to the environment.
The areas in which I seek ease were more vast than I had thought (thanks Gabe!), which did challenge me to look at places where it requires more of me as opportunities to grow. Friction is often a way to gain something much more valuable and gain lasting satisfaction or skills.
The audio was a great way for me to add the layered imprinting of this message. Was it easier? Yes. Will I need to write some things down to remember? Also yes. Worth the extra effort.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
A quick caveat, this isn't a call to ditch it all and go primitive, but rather an encouragement to think through the costs of the easy roads, and occasionally choose the longer path.
𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒆
𝒃𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒃𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒅
And now I need to process!
I will say, this is a bit like preaching to the choir, but who doesn't like their ideas packaged in a studied and polished way?!
Over 15 years ago, my husband and I created our "Need Less Project." We felt like we were getting swept up into buying things we didn't need and it was not making our lives better. There was a lot more to our decision, but this book has been a great reminder and reset to slow down & think more about purchases.
We are bombarded by messages selling us items and systems that are supposed to make life easier. We rarely take time to examine what that ease for us might cost someone else, or what long-term cost may come from that short term ease. While not everything is a zero-sum-game, Bullard brings up many of the ways convenience has isolated us and cut off so many social connecting points, beyond the costs to low-wage or even slave-labor, or the costs to the environment.
The areas in which I seek ease were more vast than I had thought (thanks Gabe!), which did challenge me to look at places where it requires more of me as opportunities to grow. Friction is often a way to gain something much more valuable and gain lasting satisfaction or skills.
The audio was a great way for me to add the layered imprinting of this message. Was it easier? Yes. Will I need to write some things down to remember? Also yes. Worth the extra effort.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
A quick caveat, this isn't a call to ditch it all and go primitive, but rather an encouragement to think through the costs of the easy roads, and occasionally choose the longer path.
October 28, 2026
This book was so good, I need to read it again
October 2, 2026
4.5 stars. Good food for thought about how we live our lives and the impact on us, mentally and physically, and our environments.
Read
October 2, 2026Getting into Luddism and friction-maxxing
October 11, 2026
"I could have named the book 'Against Technology' [or a number of other things]" Bullard says at the conclusion. Against convenience doesn't take a step back to define convenience or examine it in a philosophical way or relate it to human nature or the human condition. Sometimes convenience seems to equate to more choice, sometimes to time or cost savings, and sometimes to achieving better results, but this isn't explicitly discussed. Instead, Bullard rails against technology generally and its negative impacts on news media, the arts, the environment, and the restaurant industry.
I am sympathetic to skepticism about convenience because I do believe it is hollowing out aspects of life (community, feelings of individual accomplishment/purpose, etc.). I avoid rideshares in favor of public transit, walking and biking, and I don't use food delivery apps. I genuinely wanted to learn more about how to resist convenience, but the book provided too little concrete advice. For example, it repeatedly encouraged the reader to "shop local", and touted a few positives such as curation, but didn't pause to discuss how one can justify (to oneself) tradeoffs such as paying more, limited selection and not having others' reviews. Starting the resistance section with banning plastic bags, after raising deep societal issues, seemed almost like a joke.
I am sympathetic to skepticism about convenience because I do believe it is hollowing out aspects of life (community, feelings of individual accomplishment/purpose, etc.). I avoid rideshares in favor of public transit, walking and biking, and I don't use food delivery apps. I genuinely wanted to learn more about how to resist convenience, but the book provided too little concrete advice. For example, it repeatedly encouraged the reader to "shop local", and touted a few positives such as curation, but didn't pause to discuss how one can justify (to oneself) tradeoffs such as paying more, limited selection and not having others' reviews. Starting the resistance section with banning plastic bags, after raising deep societal issues, seemed almost like a joke.
October 17, 2026
I knew where this was going around 10% of the way through the book and he was talking about the Starbucks app. It smelled kind of like a… Big City-focused interpretation of the problem.
My local Starbucks isn’t remotely like that. It’s in a small city, and the baristas know my name. There are regulars they recognize. If it’s not rush hour or unexpectedly busy, they chat with customers. People come in and sit down and chill.
I’m not saying that the author’s experiences are wrong, nor am I saying that Starbucks is perfect in all their business practices, but I think this depiction of the store is very narrowly based through the lens of someone living in a densely populated area, going to a highly popular and well-recognized coffee chain.
Yes, it is going to be busy more often than not (especially during office work hours), and yes, the baristas will be more overwhelmed- what were you expecting?
I was a barista, and with a few isolated exceptions, the location I worked at was only ever as crazy as the author describes during holidays/the Christmas season.
Finally- and the author may have not been aware of this- the store has the ability to shut the app off if they’re experiencing high foot and drivethru traffic. I feel like that’s an important fact if we’re basing our criticism around the app, specifically.
My local Starbucks isn’t remotely like that. It’s in a small city, and the baristas know my name. There are regulars they recognize. If it’s not rush hour or unexpectedly busy, they chat with customers. People come in and sit down and chill.
I’m not saying that the author’s experiences are wrong, nor am I saying that Starbucks is perfect in all their business practices, but I think this depiction of the store is very narrowly based through the lens of someone living in a densely populated area, going to a highly popular and well-recognized coffee chain.
Yes, it is going to be busy more often than not (especially during office work hours), and yes, the baristas will be more overwhelmed- what were you expecting?
I was a barista, and with a few isolated exceptions, the location I worked at was only ever as crazy as the author describes during holidays/the Christmas season.
Finally- and the author may have not been aware of this- the store has the ability to shut the app off if they’re experiencing high foot and drivethru traffic. I feel like that’s an important fact if we’re basing our criticism around the app, specifically.
September 4, 2026
Going in to this book, I was skeptical. Frankly, I just...enjoy convenience. I already feel that there aren't enough hours in a day, so why not embrace measures that let us make the most of them?
Basically, part of me was pouting as I started reading. I was going to read this, but I wasn't going to like it.
Well, uh. Instead, I loved it.
I found myself not wanting to put this book down, devouring it like I would fiction. I cornered my partner and made him listen to me talk about it. I told strangers about certain concepts. While I read nonfiction pretty much constantly, it's rare for me to read a book that actively changes my thinking and behavior while I'm reading it, but Against Convenience already been reshaping my life. I'm already planning a reread.
Obviously, this book might not hit the same way for you that it did for me. My experience with the content was probably largely a case of right-book-for-me, right time. You may already be familiar with many of the ideas from this book, or you may disagree with some of the suggestions proposed. But it's a timely, quick read, so why not find out?
In spite of the title, this is not really a philosophical or sociological exploration of convenience itself as a concept, but more so a commentary on the effects of specific conveniences (largely tied to corporations/capitalism, though Bullard doesn't say so in as many words). Bullard says that a convenience is something that "saves (or purports to save) time, effort, money, or some combination of the three," which is absolutely a fair definition, but the definition—or at least, the focus—actually used in the book is much narrower than that. I'd say his thesis really comes in his next paragraph: "These savings come from somewhere, or from someone. It's sort of like the law of conservation of energy in physics—time, effort, and money aren't created or destroyed, only moved and converted. Every convenience has a cost—if we don't pay it, someone else will." While every convenience may have a cost, some are certainly larger or easier to observe than others, and it's those large, easy(ish) to observe costs that Bullard focuses on. Surprisingly, the book ends up feeling as if it would make a great companion read to Cory Doctorow's Enshittification, as the two feature similar explorations of individual choice in our age of modern tech.
I do want to flag that the book's title (or rather, its tagline? sub-subtitle? it doesn't appear on the book's cover or, from what I can tell, in the book itself) appears to be one of the most egregious examples of keyword-stuffing I've seen in recent memory. This book is absolutely not a self-help guide to digital detox and mindfulness, and if you go into it expecting those thing—or even, in general, expecting a book that is at all along those lines—then you'll find yourself sorely disappointed. This book clearly proposes a problem and then, yes, does propose some solutions to that problem, but expect something more polemic than personal growth. If you go into the book expecting it to give you a 10-step process to quit the easy life, you'll probably be disappointed (though I would hope you'd keep reading anyway). Go in with accurate expectations instead! Personally, I'm glad the book doesn't match that tagline, so if you share that view, please don't let the tagline prevent you from reading.
I read this in audiobook format, read by the author. While author-read books can be hit-or-miss, Bullard's reading was polished and professional and added a great personal touch to the book that made it feel like a conversation, not a lecture. Ideally, when listening to an author-read book you know the narrator is the author but feel as if they're a trained narrator, and that felt like the case here! I usually give feedback on a book's references section when reviewing nonfiction, but because I reviewed this in audiobook ARC format, I haven't been able to check out the references yet. The final audiobook will have a supplemental PDF that will, I assume, contain the references! Personally, I'm looking forward to checking out the references once I get a print copy—which I plan to do as soon as I can once this releases.
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook copy! All opinions are, of course, my own. Since I read an ARC, the quotes I shared may not perfectly match the final text, but I did check them against the Amazon sample!)
Basically, part of me was pouting as I started reading. I was going to read this, but I wasn't going to like it.
Well, uh. Instead, I loved it.
I found myself not wanting to put this book down, devouring it like I would fiction. I cornered my partner and made him listen to me talk about it. I told strangers about certain concepts. While I read nonfiction pretty much constantly, it's rare for me to read a book that actively changes my thinking and behavior while I'm reading it, but Against Convenience already been reshaping my life. I'm already planning a reread.
Obviously, this book might not hit the same way for you that it did for me. My experience with the content was probably largely a case of right-book-for-me, right time. You may already be familiar with many of the ideas from this book, or you may disagree with some of the suggestions proposed. But it's a timely, quick read, so why not find out?
In spite of the title, this is not really a philosophical or sociological exploration of convenience itself as a concept, but more so a commentary on the effects of specific conveniences (largely tied to corporations/capitalism, though Bullard doesn't say so in as many words). Bullard says that a convenience is something that "saves (or purports to save) time, effort, money, or some combination of the three," which is absolutely a fair definition, but the definition—or at least, the focus—actually used in the book is much narrower than that. I'd say his thesis really comes in his next paragraph: "These savings come from somewhere, or from someone. It's sort of like the law of conservation of energy in physics—time, effort, and money aren't created or destroyed, only moved and converted. Every convenience has a cost—if we don't pay it, someone else will." While every convenience may have a cost, some are certainly larger or easier to observe than others, and it's those large, easy(ish) to observe costs that Bullard focuses on. Surprisingly, the book ends up feeling as if it would make a great companion read to Cory Doctorow's Enshittification, as the two feature similar explorations of individual choice in our age of modern tech.
I do want to flag that the book's title (or rather, its tagline? sub-subtitle? it doesn't appear on the book's cover or, from what I can tell, in the book itself) appears to be one of the most egregious examples of keyword-stuffing I've seen in recent memory. This book is absolutely not a self-help guide to digital detox and mindfulness, and if you go into it expecting those thing—or even, in general, expecting a book that is at all along those lines—then you'll find yourself sorely disappointed. This book clearly proposes a problem and then, yes, does propose some solutions to that problem, but expect something more polemic than personal growth. If you go into the book expecting it to give you a 10-step process to quit the easy life, you'll probably be disappointed (though I would hope you'd keep reading anyway). Go in with accurate expectations instead! Personally, I'm glad the book doesn't match that tagline, so if you share that view, please don't let the tagline prevent you from reading.
I read this in audiobook format, read by the author. While author-read books can be hit-or-miss, Bullard's reading was polished and professional and added a great personal touch to the book that made it feel like a conversation, not a lecture. Ideally, when listening to an author-read book you know the narrator is the author but feel as if they're a trained narrator, and that felt like the case here! I usually give feedback on a book's references section when reviewing nonfiction, but because I reviewed this in audiobook ARC format, I haven't been able to check out the references yet. The final audiobook will have a supplemental PDF that will, I assume, contain the references! Personally, I'm looking forward to checking out the references once I get a print copy—which I plan to do as soon as I can once this releases.
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook copy! All opinions are, of course, my own. Since I read an ARC, the quotes I shared may not perfectly match the final text, but I did check them against the Amazon sample!)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In the spirit of the book, this review is written in a font that makes it 13% harder to read.
This book is a polemic that suggests the problem with our current society is that we have made it too convenient. Enabled, but not created, by contemporary technology, society chooses designs that provide, or aim to provide, solutions for ‘pain points.’ But doing this leaves us worse off and less happy.
It references Bullshit Jobs more than once, , and feels like a spiritual successor. It is unapologetic. The idea is 'truthy,' something generally acknowledged that is accurate but also hard to define. It is a solid essay that an author extended to book length, occasionally suffering for it.
The biggest Bullshit Jobs connection amounts to the future not being what it was made out to be. Technology continues to improve, but it feels like there was some broken promise. The conditions that did not improve feel material and the ones that it did feel fleeting. What happened?
For me, the answer is expressed the best by XKCD. Rephrased, I am sorry that cannot give you a flying car. I am too busy flying a manned mission around the moon.
In Bullshit Jobs, the act is the creation of the eponymous jobs in some sort of pseduo-sinecure or moral justification. In this book, it is the catalog of changes that are labeled as improvements, but create wholly different problems: Time Square Red, Time Square Blue, but like for groceries.
There are a few things that elevate this book other “X is leading us astray” books.
The first is that it is scrumptiously sourced. The evidence may not line up, but the data is there for you to compare.
The second is its sense of humility. An easy solution would contravene the message of the book against easy solutions. The author is expert in refuting his own arguments, and routinely would address my compliant about some point in the text, usually to realize the problems of the observation. This works well because the reader gets both the polemical argument and the drawing of the sting from it.
There are points where the author loses the thread, mostly in the more filler-like sections. There are some odd targets at points (lofi hip-hop radio: beats to relax/study to is a moral failing?). There is a deep myopia to the book, almost an ego-centrism. Nostalgia is a slippery slope, and you can always allow for a further step back as when the real good times were, where as this book tends to take it to somewhere around 1980 and let it stand. There is a singularly bad section at the end where the author slips into an Atlantic article, a Brooksian fugue of the amazing experience that he has when he eschews convenience. I will spare the specifics here, but my first thought about his story of was “this is a man who has never ended up on the smoking car on the L.”
I was leading into a criticism of the book based on the distinction between some convenience not being present and someone not using some convenience that is there. I think about it as the BookTok argument. I am content with my social media usage, because I avoid some and others I highly curate, so my experience is pretty delightful. I know what I get something from and what I do not. People forget you need to put in the work.
But that criticism is as much where the book shines, because this is not, for instance, a moral panic book. The internet is not uniquely brain breaking. Rather it enables a set of preexisting tendencies. The answer is not to revert to the past, however recent, but to consider.
It is the best book I have read this year so far. It has answers, but it knows the limits of those answers. Even where I think it gets it wrong, I find myself still thinking about it, to the point of changing my behavior. That is meaningful.
I think that there is a growing consensus around...something. It amounts to what I wrote above: you have to do the work. But I think about this book, and The Boring Internet, and Chokepoint Capitalism, and Despotification. It is one of the reflections of that XKCD comment, where something about the ease or lack of novelty makes us lose track of the incredible effort involved, or what even takes effort. And of all possible tangents, I think about Jimmy Carter.
If I did put in the work, I think that I would come to that grander synthesis there about taking back agency. I think that the author is wrong to label this convenience. Convenience as a concept picks up too many errant pieces and makes contentious things that ought not to be. But this book remains one of the better aggregations of that something, full of useful provocations that can help you as part of your daily experience.
My thanks to the author, Gabe Bullard, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, for making the ARC available to me.
This book is a polemic that suggests the problem with our current society is that we have made it too convenient. Enabled, but not created, by contemporary technology, society chooses designs that provide, or aim to provide, solutions for ‘pain points.’ But doing this leaves us worse off and less happy.
It references Bullshit Jobs more than once, , and feels like a spiritual successor. It is unapologetic. The idea is 'truthy,' something generally acknowledged that is accurate but also hard to define. It is a solid essay that an author extended to book length, occasionally suffering for it.
The biggest Bullshit Jobs connection amounts to the future not being what it was made out to be. Technology continues to improve, but it feels like there was some broken promise. The conditions that did not improve feel material and the ones that it did feel fleeting. What happened?
For me, the answer is expressed the best by XKCD. Rephrased, I am sorry that cannot give you a flying car. I am too busy flying a manned mission around the moon.
In Bullshit Jobs, the act is the creation of the eponymous jobs in some sort of pseduo-sinecure or moral justification. In this book, it is the catalog of changes that are labeled as improvements, but create wholly different problems: Time Square Red, Time Square Blue, but like for groceries.
There are a few things that elevate this book other “X is leading us astray” books.
The first is that it is scrumptiously sourced. The evidence may not line up, but the data is there for you to compare.
The second is its sense of humility. An easy solution would contravene the message of the book against easy solutions. The author is expert in refuting his own arguments, and routinely would address my compliant about some point in the text, usually to realize the problems of the observation. This works well because the reader gets both the polemical argument and the drawing of the sting from it.
There are points where the author loses the thread, mostly in the more filler-like sections. There are some odd targets at points (lofi hip-hop radio: beats to relax/study to is a moral failing?). There is a deep myopia to the book, almost an ego-centrism. Nostalgia is a slippery slope, and you can always allow for a further step back as when the real good times were, where as this book tends to take it to somewhere around 1980 and let it stand. There is a singularly bad section at the end where the author slips into an Atlantic article, a Brooksian fugue of the amazing experience that he has when he eschews convenience. I will spare the specifics here, but my first thought about his story of was “this is a man who has never ended up on the smoking car on the L.”
I was leading into a criticism of the book based on the distinction between some convenience not being present and someone not using some convenience that is there. I think about it as the BookTok argument. I am content with my social media usage, because I avoid some and others I highly curate, so my experience is pretty delightful. I know what I get something from and what I do not. People forget you need to put in the work.
But that criticism is as much where the book shines, because this is not, for instance, a moral panic book. The internet is not uniquely brain breaking. Rather it enables a set of preexisting tendencies. The answer is not to revert to the past, however recent, but to consider.
It is the best book I have read this year so far. It has answers, but it knows the limits of those answers. Even where I think it gets it wrong, I find myself still thinking about it, to the point of changing my behavior. That is meaningful.
I think that there is a growing consensus around...something. It amounts to what I wrote above: you have to do the work. But I think about this book, and The Boring Internet, and Chokepoint Capitalism, and Despotification. It is one of the reflections of that XKCD comment, where something about the ease or lack of novelty makes us lose track of the incredible effort involved, or what even takes effort. And of all possible tangents, I think about Jimmy Carter.
If I did put in the work, I think that I would come to that grander synthesis there about taking back agency. I think that the author is wrong to label this convenience. Convenience as a concept picks up too many errant pieces and makes contentious things that ought not to be. But this book remains one of the better aggregations of that something, full of useful provocations that can help you as part of your daily experience.
My thanks to the author, Gabe Bullard, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, for making the ARC available to me.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
《 ARC REVIEW 》
☆☆☆☆.5
"Convenience isn’t the cause of all our problems. It’s not the solution, either. Giving up a few of the more harmful conveniences won’t fix the world. But embracing friction, or at least trying to see its value, is a type of progress."
I just finished reading Against Convenience: Embracing Friction in an Age of Endless Ease by Gabe Bullard. While I typically have a hard time rating nonfiction books, this one was solid and I really enjoyed it.
I feel like I learned so much while reading it, and it made me question my own habits and the conveniences I use on a daily basis. I've been trying to be more mindful of the hours that I spend looking at a screen every single day. It's easy to get sucked into the doomscroll, and miss everything going on around us. I go from looking at my phone, to my work computer, to my computer for school, to my TV, to my phone again. Throw my kindle in there, and I'm looking at a screen for most of my waking hours.
I picked this book up because I wanted a hard lesson about "embracing friction" and reshaping my own life to not rely on conveniences. Not only have the screens become a problem for me, but the apps that have been created to keep us on the screens and away from interacting with other people. Bullard's interviews with people gave insight into large corporations, and how the massive technological advances have limited human connection, and we, as humans, are struggling because of it. For instance: an app with endless customizations for a coffee which takes away from the simple process of asking a barista for a coffee, or another app to have someone bring said coffee to you with no social interactions needed.
I took a long, hard look at the conveniences that I used frequently, sometimes on a daily basis, and started to change the way I looked at things. I found out that I like chatting with my local barista and looked forward to getting my coffee from a place that knows my name and order, and that I missed going to a grocery store to peruse the aisles and find new things. Grocery delivery and someone bringing me my coffee wasn't helping me be more productive like I assumed, it was instead allowing me to burn myself out because I was trying to do more without slowing down.
Overall, this book really opened my eyes to the things I was doing under the guise of convenience, and I'm so glad I picked it up! I took my time reading it because I wanted to savor the process. Rome wasn't built in a day and I know I'm not going to change my habits that fast either, but I'm happy to have a starting point.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.
☆☆☆☆.5
"Convenience isn’t the cause of all our problems. It’s not the solution, either. Giving up a few of the more harmful conveniences won’t fix the world. But embracing friction, or at least trying to see its value, is a type of progress."
I just finished reading Against Convenience: Embracing Friction in an Age of Endless Ease by Gabe Bullard. While I typically have a hard time rating nonfiction books, this one was solid and I really enjoyed it.
I feel like I learned so much while reading it, and it made me question my own habits and the conveniences I use on a daily basis. I've been trying to be more mindful of the hours that I spend looking at a screen every single day. It's easy to get sucked into the doomscroll, and miss everything going on around us. I go from looking at my phone, to my work computer, to my computer for school, to my TV, to my phone again. Throw my kindle in there, and I'm looking at a screen for most of my waking hours.
I picked this book up because I wanted a hard lesson about "embracing friction" and reshaping my own life to not rely on conveniences. Not only have the screens become a problem for me, but the apps that have been created to keep us on the screens and away from interacting with other people. Bullard's interviews with people gave insight into large corporations, and how the massive technological advances have limited human connection, and we, as humans, are struggling because of it. For instance: an app with endless customizations for a coffee which takes away from the simple process of asking a barista for a coffee, or another app to have someone bring said coffee to you with no social interactions needed.
I took a long, hard look at the conveniences that I used frequently, sometimes on a daily basis, and started to change the way I looked at things. I found out that I like chatting with my local barista and looked forward to getting my coffee from a place that knows my name and order, and that I missed going to a grocery store to peruse the aisles and find new things. Grocery delivery and someone bringing me my coffee wasn't helping me be more productive like I assumed, it was instead allowing me to burn myself out because I was trying to do more without slowing down.
Overall, this book really opened my eyes to the things I was doing under the guise of convenience, and I'm so glad I picked it up! I took my time reading it because I wanted to savor the process. Rome wasn't built in a day and I know I'm not going to change my habits that fast either, but I'm happy to have a starting point.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the ALC.
Everyone should read this book. EVERYONE.
Gabe Bullard examines how our current age of "modern conveniences" is impacting us as a society. Approachably written and with immense clarity, Against Convenience asks its readers to examine how our consumption has escalated, our social behaviors have changed, what is driving these changes, and how it is fundamentally contributing to climate change and media illiteracy - all while eroding our capacity for empathy.
Walking through examples of technological improvements, such as the development of the smartphone, it asks the questions that many of us seem to overlook each time a new device is released: What is fundamentally different or better about this item? And perhaps more importantly, why do I need it? Tech companies thrive on planned obsolescence and pump marketing dollars into campaigns designed to capitalize on our "fear of missing out." There may be an app for just about everything, but does there need to be? How has our fascination with ease and offloading labor through these same applications changed our ability to read the world around us (ie. social cues, communication, disagreement)?
The chapters on self-checkouts and the gig economy, for example, break down how companies positioned implementing these services: faster, easier, money and time saving. That last one being key. We all understand that time is a finite resource, and in a capitalist economy that values productivity-maxxing, of course we want to make the absolute most of the time we do have each day. Where is that labor shifting? What work is being delegated? Who is taking on this work? Are the conditions of that work fair and well compensated? All of this ease and convenience comes with an inevitable cost. For the tech companies providing the means of facilitating all of it, it's your data. Which, of course, is being mined, parsed, and sold to other tech companies so they can keep selling frictionless experiences.
But this lack of friction is actively hurting real creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. And while Bullard is asking the hard questions and drawing clear connections, there is less emphasis on what the "right" response is to the convenience economy. Bullard notes that there are abundant articles and books addressing solutions, which is an invitation to the reader to dive deeper after this thoughtful introduction.
Everyone should read this book. EVERYONE.
Gabe Bullard examines how our current age of "modern conveniences" is impacting us as a society. Approachably written and with immense clarity, Against Convenience asks its readers to examine how our consumption has escalated, our social behaviors have changed, what is driving these changes, and how it is fundamentally contributing to climate change and media illiteracy - all while eroding our capacity for empathy.
Walking through examples of technological improvements, such as the development of the smartphone, it asks the questions that many of us seem to overlook each time a new device is released: What is fundamentally different or better about this item? And perhaps more importantly, why do I need it? Tech companies thrive on planned obsolescence and pump marketing dollars into campaigns designed to capitalize on our "fear of missing out." There may be an app for just about everything, but does there need to be? How has our fascination with ease and offloading labor through these same applications changed our ability to read the world around us (ie. social cues, communication, disagreement)?
The chapters on self-checkouts and the gig economy, for example, break down how companies positioned implementing these services: faster, easier, money and time saving. That last one being key. We all understand that time is a finite resource, and in a capitalist economy that values productivity-maxxing, of course we want to make the absolute most of the time we do have each day. Where is that labor shifting? What work is being delegated? Who is taking on this work? Are the conditions of that work fair and well compensated? All of this ease and convenience comes with an inevitable cost. For the tech companies providing the means of facilitating all of it, it's your data. Which, of course, is being mined, parsed, and sold to other tech companies so they can keep selling frictionless experiences.
But this lack of friction is actively hurting real creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. And while Bullard is asking the hard questions and drawing clear connections, there is less emphasis on what the "right" response is to the convenience economy. Bullard notes that there are abundant articles and books addressing solutions, which is an invitation to the reader to dive deeper after this thoughtful introduction.
October 30, 2026
This isn't a bad read though it's a bit of dry.
I don't think this exposes anything new or groundbreaking with regards to what I'll call convenience culture. I agree that some of us are living a life without the necessary frictions that help to build social skills and connectivity with and in our communities. The perspective though is very limited considering the author's identity as a somewhat monied and privileged white man. Monied and privileged enough to move, live, and work outside of the US for example.
One thing I really wanted the book to offer was more on the exploitation of workers whose labor is being used in order to feed these "convenient" new technologies or whose work is being undercut by these convenient new technologies.
Specifically I wanted more historical examples of how inventions created for convenience affected other earlier laborers besides the luddites. As I was reading on the portion on laundry I thought of the successful washerwomen strike of Atlanta and how laundry was a valuable enterprise for black women as it kept many from having to reenter white house holds as domestic help and how the invention of washing machines undercut their ability to be self employed and self reliant.
That's just a single example of how I think some of the conversations in the book could have been expanded to include other less well known examples of convenient technologies' historical impacts on laborers. And also to move a bit out of this colorblind space the book seems to occupy.
Another thing I was hoping this book could offer was more examples of work arounds to blindly adopting these supposedly convenient new technologies or to blindly accepting convenience as a whole that wasn't just "spend more on things you once enjoyed." I already do that without issue because I have the means to do so.
What if I don't have the means? What ways can someone reorganize their life even when it's more than a minor inconvenience to do so? What ways can people organize to push back on these "convenient" technologies when they lead to further exploitation of workers, disillusionment with modern society, and social and vocational erosion? That's where I hoped this book would take the conversation upon picking it up.
I'm not upset that it didn't though, this was still alright.
I don't think this exposes anything new or groundbreaking with regards to what I'll call convenience culture. I agree that some of us are living a life without the necessary frictions that help to build social skills and connectivity with and in our communities. The perspective though is very limited considering the author's identity as a somewhat monied and privileged white man. Monied and privileged enough to move, live, and work outside of the US for example.
One thing I really wanted the book to offer was more on the exploitation of workers whose labor is being used in order to feed these "convenient" new technologies or whose work is being undercut by these convenient new technologies.
Specifically I wanted more historical examples of how inventions created for convenience affected other earlier laborers besides the luddites. As I was reading on the portion on laundry I thought of the successful washerwomen strike of Atlanta and how laundry was a valuable enterprise for black women as it kept many from having to reenter white house holds as domestic help and how the invention of washing machines undercut their ability to be self employed and self reliant.
That's just a single example of how I think some of the conversations in the book could have been expanded to include other less well known examples of convenient technologies' historical impacts on laborers. And also to move a bit out of this colorblind space the book seems to occupy.
Another thing I was hoping this book could offer was more examples of work arounds to blindly adopting these supposedly convenient new technologies or to blindly accepting convenience as a whole that wasn't just "spend more on things you once enjoyed." I already do that without issue because I have the means to do so.
What if I don't have the means? What ways can someone reorganize their life even when it's more than a minor inconvenience to do so? What ways can people organize to push back on these "convenient" technologies when they lead to further exploitation of workers, disillusionment with modern society, and social and vocational erosion? That's where I hoped this book would take the conversation upon picking it up.
I'm not upset that it didn't though, this was still alright.
October 13, 2026
Although these were all concepts and ideas I had heard or was vaguely familiar with, there is something to be said about the power of putting it all together in a cohesive book where all roads lead to the cost and worth of convenience. Like many other non-fiction books, it drives home the point repeatedly, but because it's exploring the same idea from different angles, industries, and dimensions of our lives, it comes across more like a thorough exploration of the same concept, rather than repetitive for the sake of stating the same thing 15 different times.
What surprised me the most about this book is that, even when I don't agree with every single point, since I started reading the book, I have had significant shifts in my perspectives and behaviors. As I mentioned, I didn't necessarily hear anything in this book that I hadn't at least heard something about (this is a topic my algorithms know very well I'm interested in, ironically), the way they were presented was more compelling than anything I had seen or heard before. And that, to me, is the sign of an argument well presented.
Sometimes it does come across as an old man yelling at a cloud to just "bring back my old, analogue tech!" but there are certainly benefits to the way things were done before. I appreciated the nuance and self-awareness of knowing we can't (or should) realistically opt out of every single convenience, but rather develop a series of criteria through which to make intentional choices, aware of what's gained with them and the cost of them. This, as opposed to just mindlessly adopting anything new, is my main takeaway from this book. Question the worth of every convenience against the cost (direct or indirect).
Thank you to the publisher of this audiobook for providing a review copy through NetGalley. The narration was great. No complaints there!
What surprised me the most about this book is that, even when I don't agree with every single point, since I started reading the book, I have had significant shifts in my perspectives and behaviors. As I mentioned, I didn't necessarily hear anything in this book that I hadn't at least heard something about (this is a topic my algorithms know very well I'm interested in, ironically), the way they were presented was more compelling than anything I had seen or heard before. And that, to me, is the sign of an argument well presented.
Sometimes it does come across as an old man yelling at a cloud to just "bring back my old, analogue tech!" but there are certainly benefits to the way things were done before. I appreciated the nuance and self-awareness of knowing we can't (or should) realistically opt out of every single convenience, but rather develop a series of criteria through which to make intentional choices, aware of what's gained with them and the cost of them. This, as opposed to just mindlessly adopting anything new, is my main takeaway from this book. Question the worth of every convenience against the cost (direct or indirect).
Thank you to the publisher of this audiobook for providing a review copy through NetGalley. The narration was great. No complaints there!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Gracias a Netgalley y Harper Collins por el e-arc.
Me parecieron reflexiones fascinantes y aterrizadas sobre el problema de denominar "inevitable progreso" a cada nueva app, tecnología y servicio que hace nuestra vida supuestamente más cómoda, pero en realidad limita las interacciones humanas, la organización y nos separa de las comunidades físicas a cambio de reducir las "fricciones" que vienen con la vida en sociedad.
Aborda aspectos ambientales, sociales, políticos e incluso de salud mental, todas estas facturas que pagamos por productos que supuestamente mejoran nuestra vida y se terminan convirtiendo en necesidades inventadas que adoptamos para no quedarnos obsoletos, pero que nos restan humanidad y calidad de vida.
Los servicios de streaming, las apps de compras de todo tipo de productos, los cajeros automáticos, el self checkout en el mercado, la IA, las apps de entrega de comida, de productos, de viaje... todas ellas han hecho mella en la forma en que interactuamos con los demás y no sólo eso, han llenado los bolsillos de inversionistas y dueños de negocios a través de la precarización de trabajadores y el traslado de trabajo a los usuarios, que además pagan tarifas por usar estas interfaces o dispositivos.
Es un excelente libro para reflexionar sobre la forma en que se ha transformado nuestra vida y nuestro entorno en las últimas décadas debido al avance tecnológico y a la ambición de un puñado de personas que no experimentarán las consecuencias más devastadoras de estos cambios (cambio climático, aumento de la brecha económica, desaparición de empleos, disminución de recursos naturales, etc.).
Me parecieron reflexiones fascinantes y aterrizadas sobre el problema de denominar "inevitable progreso" a cada nueva app, tecnología y servicio que hace nuestra vida supuestamente más cómoda, pero en realidad limita las interacciones humanas, la organización y nos separa de las comunidades físicas a cambio de reducir las "fricciones" que vienen con la vida en sociedad.
Aborda aspectos ambientales, sociales, políticos e incluso de salud mental, todas estas facturas que pagamos por productos que supuestamente mejoran nuestra vida y se terminan convirtiendo en necesidades inventadas que adoptamos para no quedarnos obsoletos, pero que nos restan humanidad y calidad de vida.
Los servicios de streaming, las apps de compras de todo tipo de productos, los cajeros automáticos, el self checkout en el mercado, la IA, las apps de entrega de comida, de productos, de viaje... todas ellas han hecho mella en la forma en que interactuamos con los demás y no sólo eso, han llenado los bolsillos de inversionistas y dueños de negocios a través de la precarización de trabajadores y el traslado de trabajo a los usuarios, que además pagan tarifas por usar estas interfaces o dispositivos.
Es un excelente libro para reflexionar sobre la forma en que se ha transformado nuestra vida y nuestro entorno en las últimas décadas debido al avance tecnológico y a la ambición de un puñado de personas que no experimentarán las consecuencias más devastadoras de estos cambios (cambio climático, aumento de la brecha económica, desaparición de empleos, disminución de recursos naturales, etc.).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2026
Book review: Against convenience. Embracing friction in an age of endless ease by Gabe Bullard
This was a fantastic and necessary read for current times.
Against convenience explores our current conveniences (ie food delivery, uber, amazon, streaming services, etc), the real cost behind them and if they are actually offering what they promise.
Each chapter explores a different “convenience”, how we got there and what we can do to add some friction. For example, current streaming services make it so easy for use to consume media for hours whether that’s music or tv shows, but has music actually gotten better? Are we discovering any new artists (or just the same music over and over)? and are we any better after binging a show for 10 hours? (where we actually were scrolling half of the time).
Gave Bullard has a similar exploration for driving services, food delivery and of course Amazon. These services all seem so easy and cheap but someone down the road is paying the cost and this book pushes us to think about it. Who is actually taking on this burden and do we have the luxury to keep ignoring it.
It also doesn’t help that most things nowadays are not made to last long and everything is about buying the newest model.
Of course, not everything is doomed. At the end of the book the author provides a list or set of questions to ask ourselves when considering a new convenience. I personally took a picture of the list (have a library book) and will be reviewing in the future.
I could go on and on about this book but would recommend you just pick it up and read it and let me know what you think! Audio is on Hoopla.
This was a fantastic and necessary read for current times.
Against convenience explores our current conveniences (ie food delivery, uber, amazon, streaming services, etc), the real cost behind them and if they are actually offering what they promise.
Each chapter explores a different “convenience”, how we got there and what we can do to add some friction. For example, current streaming services make it so easy for use to consume media for hours whether that’s music or tv shows, but has music actually gotten better? Are we discovering any new artists (or just the same music over and over)? and are we any better after binging a show for 10 hours? (where we actually were scrolling half of the time).
Gave Bullard has a similar exploration for driving services, food delivery and of course Amazon. These services all seem so easy and cheap but someone down the road is paying the cost and this book pushes us to think about it. Who is actually taking on this burden and do we have the luxury to keep ignoring it.
It also doesn’t help that most things nowadays are not made to last long and everything is about buying the newest model.
Of course, not everything is doomed. At the end of the book the author provides a list or set of questions to ask ourselves when considering a new convenience. I personally took a picture of the list (have a library book) and will be reviewing in the future.
I could go on and on about this book but would recommend you just pick it up and read it and let me know what you think! Audio is on Hoopla.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received an Audiobook ARC of this novel in thanks to NetGalley.
"Against Convenience" is a novel that explores how our modern-day world has become more convenient than ever, but that might not be the great thing we believe it to be.
This novel really forced me to reframe my perspective on connivence and the modern amenities I choose to utilize every day. One of these things that really stuck out to me was the exploration of Starbucks. With mobile ordering you barely need to go into the cafe at all anymore, and that means you are missing out on an entire experience. Cafes were designed to be warm and inviting, a place to decompress, and that afternoon coffee pick me up was designed to give you a quick break in the day. But now, you can mobile order and "efficiently" pick up your beverage while hardly stepping away from your work. Maybe my day would be a little better if I chose to take a true break and go into a cafe to drink my beverage.
This is one of those novels that at its core I think everyone could benefit from reading. I do think there is some circular logic and some repetition of ideas, so the book could be a little shorter.
The audiobook was very well produced and I FLEW through it. I just wanted to hear all of the ideas and I was heavily invested in what ideas would be presented next.
I think this novel presents crucial insights that we should all pay more attention to.
"Against Convenience" is a novel that explores how our modern-day world has become more convenient than ever, but that might not be the great thing we believe it to be.
This novel really forced me to reframe my perspective on connivence and the modern amenities I choose to utilize every day. One of these things that really stuck out to me was the exploration of Starbucks. With mobile ordering you barely need to go into the cafe at all anymore, and that means you are missing out on an entire experience. Cafes were designed to be warm and inviting, a place to decompress, and that afternoon coffee pick me up was designed to give you a quick break in the day. But now, you can mobile order and "efficiently" pick up your beverage while hardly stepping away from your work. Maybe my day would be a little better if I chose to take a true break and go into a cafe to drink my beverage.
This is one of those novels that at its core I think everyone could benefit from reading. I do think there is some circular logic and some repetition of ideas, so the book could be a little shorter.
The audiobook was very well produced and I FLEW through it. I just wanted to hear all of the ideas and I was heavily invested in what ideas would be presented next.
I think this novel presents crucial insights that we should all pay more attention to.
Read
September 9, 2026I ordered dinner off an app while reading this book, which is either irony or exactly the kind of thing Bullard is trying to get me to notice.
His central claim is one I hadn't quite put words to before: a lot of what we call convenience isn't actually less effort, it's just effort that's been hidden or outsourced somewhere we don't see it. Ordering food doesn't eliminate cooking, it moves the labor onto someone else and charges you a fee for the privilege of not having to think about it. Once that framing clicked for me, I started noticing it everywhere.
The chapters on "lean back" content and second screen culture hit close to home too. I don't love admitting how much of my evening scrolling is just filler I'll forget by morning, and Bullard's argument that we're trading depth for endless frictionless options landed harder than I expected from a book with such a breezy premise.
Where I wanted more was in the solutions section. The friction-maxxing suggestions, cooking from scratch, handwriting letters, actually talking to your cashier, are good, but they felt a little thin compared to the sharper cultural diagnosis earlier in the book. I wanted more of a road map and got more of a permission slip. Still, this gave me a genuinely useful new lens for looking at my daily choices, and I've already started making a few small swaps because of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for the ARC.
His central claim is one I hadn't quite put words to before: a lot of what we call convenience isn't actually less effort, it's just effort that's been hidden or outsourced somewhere we don't see it. Ordering food doesn't eliminate cooking, it moves the labor onto someone else and charges you a fee for the privilege of not having to think about it. Once that framing clicked for me, I started noticing it everywhere.
The chapters on "lean back" content and second screen culture hit close to home too. I don't love admitting how much of my evening scrolling is just filler I'll forget by morning, and Bullard's argument that we're trading depth for endless frictionless options landed harder than I expected from a book with such a breezy premise.
Where I wanted more was in the solutions section. The friction-maxxing suggestions, cooking from scratch, handwriting letters, actually talking to your cashier, are good, but they felt a little thin compared to the sharper cultural diagnosis earlier in the book. I wanted more of a road map and got more of a permission slip. Still, this gave me a genuinely useful new lens for looking at my daily choices, and I've already started making a few small swaps because of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for the ARC.
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