Things have hidden complexity. Whether it's the actual object or how it relates to existing systems it's put in, or surprising economics, or simply complex supp

Things have hidden complexity. Whether it's the actual object or how it relates to existing systems it's put in, or surprising economics, or simply complex supply chains. A lot of the time when you aren't seeing progress (e.g. 'its the future, so where are my jetpacks?' memes), it turns out that doing a thing in a worthwhile or economically feasible way is actually really hard. From the outside, it might look like making personal jetpacks for everyone is easier than transcribing youtube videos. After all there are videos of people using jetpack-like things going back many decades! Surely if it almost worked then, it must work now. That's how technology progresses, right? I'm convinced that most people making points like this think tech is like a video game, and all you have to do is put resource points into it. And don't even get started on all the innovations that they probably just aren't paying attention to. As if it's a total coincidence that more and more cancers are getting survivable over time.