The visible connector problem is easy to see in cabling. The software version is less visible, but it has the same maintenance shape. Zapier lists more than nine thousand apps it can connect to each other. Nine thousand pieces of software in regular business use that don’t talk to each other natively, and an entire company exists to be the translator between them. ...
When McDonald’s replaced counter queues with big ordering screens, and Starbucks and Costa let you order through an app and just pick up, the reason those changes stuck was not only that the technology worked. It was that they were genuinely faster and easier than what they replaced, and most people who use them now would not go back. Some newer Starbucks locations have removed the counter entirely, which only makes sense if the replacement has already cleared that bar. COVID forced a lot of chains to get there properly because they had no choice but to get it right. ...