my closest single intellectual ancestor. tools for conviviality (1973). argues that tools beyond a threshold of complexity begin to undermine the purpose they claim to serve, and he calls this counterproductivity. a hospital system that makes people sicker. a transport system that consumes more time than it saves.

the test i apply to every tool i build: does it enhance or diminish human autonomy? a convivial tool enhances capability without creating dependency.

illich wrote from cuernavaca, mexico, a direct geographic echo of where i live and work.

conviviality is the keystone concept taken from illich and applied throughout soft stack ecology.