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tldr Home automation products tend to offer a lot of features to woo early-adopter technical investors likely to be on Kickstarter whereas simpler products woul

• saosebastiao 12y ago
  Entirely true, but I think the consumer's version of simplicity conflicts with the developer's view of it. Simplicity to the consumer often introduces a complexity to the developer on a whole new level of discomfort when compared to snazzy technical features. Technical features are for people that know how to communicate what they want to the system, but simple features often mean inferring what people want, without them telling the system and without even being able to communicate it at all. The sprinkler use case above (tonyarkles) is an easy example, because there is a knowable science to healthy lawns. The light dimming is much more complex. How do you infer if someone wants the lights to brighten when they walk into the kitchen momentarily for a snack, even when a movie is on and you normally want them dimmed?