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Smart Homes Are Terrible (The Atlantic) [View all]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/smart-homes-technology/685867/-snip-
Light switches, which have been self-explanatory since the dawn of electric lighting, apparently now come as an unlabeled multibutton panel that literally required a tutorial session from a technician. Pressing the same button twice might turn the lights on and off, or you might have to press one button for on and another for off. “It depends” is the name of the game—which is exactly what you don’t want when you’re trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night.
-snip-
On to the thermostats. When we got there, it was hot. But how hot, exactly? Round touch screens in various rooms took us through a labyrinth of tiny-text options just to set the temperature to 68 degrees. Or was it already at 68? We finally managed to select the temperature we wanted only to discover that a preset schedule overrode our choice, and we’d have to figure out how to override that.
-snip-
I’m no Luddite. I run a software company! I see the allure of high-tech gadgets and have fallen for their promises before. When my wife and I built a house more than a decade ago, we opted for all kinds of automated systems: low-voltage controls, mechanized blinds, irrigation systems that measure rain so the sprinklers come on only when you need them. We regretted it almost immediately. What we discovered is that this stuff requires setup, which can take more time than just doing things manually, and is maddeningly glitchy, forcing you to pay someone handsomely by the visit or the hour to fix your appliances for you.
Tech makes many things better, but you shouldn’t have to learn how to use a house. You shouldn’t need a tech tour and an app (or five) to turn the heat down or clean the dishes. You shouldn’t have to worry that pressing the wrong button will set off a chain of events you don’t know how to undo. All these powerful processors and thousands of lines of code have succeeded in making everyday things slower, harder to use, and less reliable than they used to be.
-snip-
Light switches, which have been self-explanatory since the dawn of electric lighting, apparently now come as an unlabeled multibutton panel that literally required a tutorial session from a technician. Pressing the same button twice might turn the lights on and off, or you might have to press one button for on and another for off. “It depends” is the name of the game—which is exactly what you don’t want when you’re trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night.
-snip-
On to the thermostats. When we got there, it was hot. But how hot, exactly? Round touch screens in various rooms took us through a labyrinth of tiny-text options just to set the temperature to 68 degrees. Or was it already at 68? We finally managed to select the temperature we wanted only to discover that a preset schedule overrode our choice, and we’d have to figure out how to override that.
-snip-
I’m no Luddite. I run a software company! I see the allure of high-tech gadgets and have fallen for their promises before. When my wife and I built a house more than a decade ago, we opted for all kinds of automated systems: low-voltage controls, mechanized blinds, irrigation systems that measure rain so the sprinklers come on only when you need them. We regretted it almost immediately. What we discovered is that this stuff requires setup, which can take more time than just doing things manually, and is maddeningly glitchy, forcing you to pay someone handsomely by the visit or the hour to fix your appliances for you.
Tech makes many things better, but you shouldn’t have to learn how to use a house. You shouldn’t need a tech tour and an app (or five) to turn the heat down or clean the dishes. You shouldn’t have to worry that pressing the wrong button will set off a chain of events you don’t know how to undo. All these powerful processors and thousands of lines of code have succeeded in making everyday things slower, harder to use, and less reliable than they used to be.
-snip-
39 replies
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