I remember the first time I opened Slack. It was just... clean. A chat app that actually made sense. No email threading nightmares, no endless CC chains, just conversations that felt natural. I evangelized it to my team. "This is going to change how we work," I said.
I was right, but not in the way I hoped.
Five years later, Slack doesn't just work worse, it actively disrespects me. Every day I discover some new way they've made the experience more hostile. A popup blocking my workspace to tell me about features I'll never use. A redesigned sidebar that hides the channels I actually need. Settings buried three menus deep that used to be accessible. It's like they're trying to make me hate it.
And it's not just Slack.
I've lived through this pattern too many times
Notion felt like magic when I discovered it. Finally, a tool that could be my notes, my wiki, my database, my project tracker, whatever I needed. The flexibility was intoxicating. I migrated everything. Built complex systems. Became dependent.
Now every time I open it, there's a banner about AI features I don't want. The interface has accumulated so many options, buttons, and menus that finding basic functions feels like archaeology. They added databases, then relations, then formulas, then rollups, then synced databases, then automations, then AI—and never once asked if making the tool simpler might be more valuable than making it do everything.
Figma was supposed to be different. The scrappy alternative to Adobe's expensive, bloated design tools. Real-time collaboration in the browser. A team that actually listened to designers. When Adobe announced they were acquiring it for $20 billion, my stomach dropped. I knew exactly what was coming: "Adobification" - price increases, feature bloat, and the slow death of everything that made Figma great.
Miro started as this delightful digital whiteboard. You just... made a board. Now I can't create a simple sticky note without being interrupted by upgrade prompts, tutorial overlays, and suggestions to try features I've deliberately ignored. The tool that once respected my intelligence now treats me like I'm incapable of learning anything without constant hand-holding, while simultaneously making the interface so cluttered I can't find what I need.
It's the disrespect that kills me
I can handle slow performance. I can work around bugs. What I can't handle is the constant, grinding disrespect.
The upgrade nags are relentless. I'm using Miro's free tier because I'm a solo user who doesn't need "enterprise collaboration features," and they've made sure I never forget it. Banners. Popups. Disabled features with "Upgrade to unlock!" buttons. Every session is a reminder that I'm a second-class citizen in a tool I used to love.
Notion does this too. I've paid for their premium tier for years, but now every other feature is locked behind "Notion AI" or "Enterprise" plans. They moved goalposts on me after I'd already committed. That's not business, that's a bait-and-switch (scam).
The feature bloat isn't about having options, it's about drowning in complexity nobody asked for. Slack added Workflow Builder, then Slack Connect, then Huddles, then Slack Atlas, then AI summaries. Each one clutters the interface. Each one adds another menu, another setting, another thing to learn or ignore. The tool that once made communication simple now requires a manual.
And don't get me started on LinkedIn.
The dark patterns are everywhere. Settings that used to be accessible are now hidden. Features I turned off re-enable themselves after updates. Notifications I disabled start appearing again with slightly different names so technically it's a "new feature" I need to opt out of again.
It feels deliberate. Like they're testing how much disrespect I'll tolerate before I finally leave.
I thought I was going crazy. Was I just being nostalgic? Were these tools always this bad and I'd forgotten? But then I discovered Cory Doctorow's work on enshittification, and everything clicked.
He describes this three-stage decay process:
First, platforms are good to users to lock them in. That was Slack in 2015. Notion in 2018. Figma before Adobe. They were genuinely great because they needed us trapped in their ecosystem.
Second, they abuse users to court business customers. That's the enterprise pivot I've watched happen to every tool I've loved. Suddenly the roadmap is all SSO, SCIM provisioning, admin controls, compliance checkboxes —things I don't need but enterprises demand. Performance degrades. Prices escalate. Features multiply to win procurement deals, not solve real problems.
Third, they abuse everyone to extract maximum value for shareholders. What's left is expensive garbage that barely works, kept alive only because we're too invested to leave.
I've lived through all three stages multiple times now. And I hate that I can predict it.
The disrespect is systemic
Here's what really gets me: this isn't individual companies being greedy. It's the structure they're trapped in.
When Slack got acquired by Salesforce, it wasn't because Salesforce loved chat apps. It was because Slack had a captive user base that could be monetized. When Adobe tried to buy Figma, it wasn't to make Figma better—it was to eliminate competition and extract value from users with nowhere else to go.
Venture capital demands this progression. You can't pitch "we're going to stay simple and respect our users" to investors expecting 10x returns. You have to expand, add features, capture enterprise markets, find new revenue streams, maximize extraction. The research confirms it: innovation quality declines sharply after companies go public as they shift from genuine innovation to commercialization and profit extraction.
The disrespect isn't a bug. It's the business model.
What I actually want
I want to open a tool and feel respected.
I want software that assumes I'm intelligent enough to learn it without constant tutorial popups. I want interfaces that stay predictable instead of being rearranged every update to highlight new features I don't care about. I want to use the features I pay for without being nagged about the features I don't.
I want tools that improve over time instead of degrading. I want the people who use software daily to have a say in what gets built, not just the enterprise buyers optimizing for procurement checkboxes.
I've been learning about decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and cooperative ownership structures. What if productivity tools were owned by the people who actually use them? What if we held governance tokens and could vote on whether that new AI feature is actually valuable or just bloat? What if developers earned reputation for user respect instead of quarterly revenue growth?
This isn't fantasy. The technology exists. We could build tools with transparent governance, user ownership, and aligned incentives. We could create platforms where enshittification is structurally impossible because there are no external shareholders demanding we extract maximum value from captive users.
I'm done accepting this cycle
I'm done pretending this is normal. I'm done watching tools I love become actively hostile to me. I'm done with dark patterns, upgrade nags, feature bloat, and the daily discovery of new ways I'm being disrespected.
Every tool follows the same trajectory: seduce users with simplicity and respect, lock them in with dependencies, then slowly crank up the contempt until what's left is expensive, complex, user-hostile garbage held together by switching costs and sunk costs.
But I refuse to believe this is inevitable. We built Slack once. We built Notion once. We built Figma and Miro. We can build them again, but this time with ownership structures that make user respect mandatory instead of optional.
The tools to build this exist. The economic logic is sound. Now I just need to stop tolerating the decay and start building the alternative.
Because I'm tired of being treated like a resource to extract value from instead of a human being who deserves tools that respect my time, intelligence, and dignity.