Discovered https://uxdesign.cc/the-fallacy-of-easy-a89ef864759b after writing this; illustrates a lot of these viewpoints better.
I feel like modern design is too cluttered, and people in general are too focused on removing all friction and making everything as fast as possible.
There’s certainly times when low-friction is good for things like habits you want to cultivate, but applying that principle to everything is what leads to things like social media sucking all of our attention.
From a fulfillment standpoint, there’s a certain beauty in a little friction. Recently, I’ve been writing down notes and ideas in journals and index cards before putting them in here. There’s a sense of extra thinking and pushing you have to do when you have to go more slowly and intentionally (my typing speed is multitudes faster than my writing speed). From a life perspective, I think you can’t and shouldn’t be comfortable. Philosophically, you need to fail and struggle to succeed, and sometimes I don’t like all of the effort we put into making everything as easy as possible. What’s the point? Something easy loses the magic. Also, friction averts Cognitive Ease, which is probably generally good (although perhaps not for creativity).
It’s often better for there to be more minimalist design that’s focused on allowing deep mastery and craft. Software doesn’t need to be easy
It’s important to use core primitives with high-upside when designing mediums for thought. Designing with a focus on malleability like Notion and Figma do is insanely important for this. You can’t (and shouldn’t be able to) imagine all the various use cases of a true medium, so you should design the building blocks that enable users to obtain mastery if they try. Instead of providing the user with tons of bells and whistles that dictate how to use the app.