Selling Lemons

Frank Chimero on “a market for lemons”, an idea taken from a 1970 paper by George Akerlof, used to—accurately, I think—describe the current state of the web.

What makes the Market for Lemons concept so appealing (and what differentiates it in my mind from enshittification) is that everyone can be acting reasonably, pursuing their own interests, and things still get worse for everyone. No one has to be evil or stupid: the platform does what’s profitable, sellers do what works, buyers try to make smart decisions, and yet the whole system degrades into something nobody actually wants.

The degradation of the web has been on my mind, so his post resonated with me. I guess the launch of an app called Vibes, made to spew AI-generated slop into a feed that's full of it, only adds fuel to that fire.