[_Tools for Conviviality_](https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tools-for-conviviality-2) by Ivan Illich is an essay that anyone who wants to better understand economic and societal trends in tech should probably read. Written in 1972, it analyzes technological revolutions such as the sewing machine and the car, but it's surprising how the same patterns can also be applied to the era of late-capitalist tech enshittification. The car is taken as the perfect example of early enshittification cycle. Its introduction was welcome as a revolution for mobility and personal liberty. It allowed people to travel farther and get more done in a day. Yet, as its production became standardized and in the hands of a few producers, while its penetration of the market increased, its marginal utility diminished - the industry started to offer fewer benefits and take more in exchange. What was initially hailed as a _personal freedom_ (you _can_ take the car if your workplace is far, you _can_ take it if you want to go shopping) became an imperative - especially in places like North America. At some point the _can_ became a _must_. The industry started lobbying for more infrastructure to be built to accommodate a new car-centric world where people _must_ use the new technology if they want to go anywhere. And that infrastructure was paid by taxpayers money - including those who didn't use a car, and had to rely on underfunded public transport while subsidizing others' personal luxury. And those who owned a car had to pay subscription costs to the industry in the form of fuel and maintenance (and, nowadays, even actual direct subscription costs). There's an "industrialization" phase in the development of disruptive technology that flips the purpose of a product on its head - from building tools to serve society, to reshape societies to serve the tool. At that point adoption is no longer optional, and those who don't embrace the product of industrialization face exclusion (the concept of _radical monopoly_). Most of the technological developments since the textile revolution can be mapped in a precise framework: a net lift, followed by a push to extract value, and finally an insistence upon the technology's ubiquity. Illich's solution to the _industrial tool_ (the "_convivial tool_") is remarkably similar to the "small tech" that many of us are building or hosting nowadays. Convivial tools are defined as sustainable small-scale local-first solutions, designed primarily to enhance the autonomy and creativity of their users.