Same. I'm someone that built a cellphone from parts and programmed my own phone OS, so I get the tinkering for the sake of tinkering aspect, but I can't connect

Same. I'm someone that built a cellphone from parts and programmed my own phone OS, so I get the tinkering for the sake of tinkering aspect, but I can't connect with the need to automate all these workflows in my house. Whenever someone describes how much convenience these workflows provide, all I can think of is how big and complicated their homes must be. I'd rather have a 2-way light switch at either end of the hallway and hit a switch when I walk down it, rather than program in every exception like "turn on the hall light when it detects motion unless it's 3 am and I'm walking to the bathroom to pee, or if it's 3pm and my girlfriend is napping on the sofa next to the hall and I don't want to turn on a light and wake her, also ignore cats triggering the motion detectors." My small apartment with regular old deterministic switches is fine. I had a Nest once and hated it. At least for me, the ideal temperature for a room must be a very subjective and non-rational desire. Sometimes I want to blast the heat, sometimes I want to feel cold, it's probably emotional/psychological on a level that Nest can't model. I know someone will point out that 100 years ago I would think washing machines sounded ridiculous because I could scrub my clothes by hand easily enough. That might be true, but I would counter that there are diminishing returns on home automation. Indoor lighting was a massive improvement over living by daylight hours. Electricity over gas was a big improvement, but not as big as going from dark to light. Turning lights on with Alexa, to me, sounds like the benefit/cost curve has plateaued.