Lyft CEO's spices up annual letter: "enshittification"
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Lyft CEO David Risher brought a colorful colloquialism to his second annual letter to shareholders: enshittification.
- "It describes the ongoing degradation of a once-great product or experience, often in the blind pursuit of profit," Risher wrote in his April 24 letter.
- "Have you noticed that every website seems overrun with tacky ads? That you're getting less time to speak with your doctor? That your favorite pair of pants doesn't last as long as it used to? We all have."
The backstory: He attributes the term in his letter to author Cory Doctorow.
Between the lines: Risher — an alumnus of Amazon and Microsoft, with an undergraduate degree in comparative literature and a Harvard MBA — channels the spirit of "Smart Brevity" by pointing out a reality that the Axios founders have discovered over 18 years of building three companies:
- The default human instinct is to try to solve problems by adding rather than fixing. More people, more time, more resources — rather than making a tough decision.
"Additive bias": "This phenomenon is insidious, with multiple causes," Risher writes as he touts "best-ever results in 2024."
- "For one thing, additive bias is real: As human beings, we have a tendency to solve problems or try to attract new customers by adding things rather than taking them away."
- "That's why businesses are constantly releasing products or features of dubious value ... Add to that a quarterly earnings drumbeat that focuses attention on the short term, and the temptation to focus more on your competitor than your customer. Together, all of these factors produce a gravitational pull in the wrong direction."
The bottom line: Like Elphaba in "Wicked," Risher adds, "we have the power to defy gravity — if we start with service."
