Technology presents opportunities for efficiency and scale. And for the last century, conventional wisdom equated progress with efficiency—doing more with less friction.

We’ve worked hard to build systems that scale. Frictionless innovations for a low-touch world. Now, we’re beginning to realise that what we value most are the irreplaceable high-touch interactions that don’t scale.

It’s hard to replace the elation of a high five from a coach.

We miss the skill of a great hairdresser and the face-to-face service of a dedicated bookstore.

The reassurance of stethoscope applied to a chest during a doctor’s examination can’t be replicated in a telehealth consultation.

Technology gives us the capability to scale, but what we’re discovering now is the price we would pay for living in a frictionless world, and the things that matter to us are those that don’t scale.

[HT to my friend and colleague Mark Dyck who inspired this post during a conversation in our small business mentorship group the Right Company this week.]

Image by Adrià Crehuet Cano