Phone Dependency

I never expected quitting a job to be so hard! My time at Lyft has been an enriching journey. Tons of smart people at three very different teams, where I’ve learned how the industry works. The technical challenges were endless: from user-facing features in the app to improving the safety of our routing. But after two years, I’ve realized that it just wasn’t making me happy. My disconnect with the product was too big, and so much remote work didn’t help, either. The desire to explore grew, with the hope that something else could bring more fulfillment. ...

What if there was a company selling phones that, against all odds, optimized how little they were used? There’s a lot of potential here, given that every company is trying to get you hooked on their app. “Dumbphones” have emerged for this very reason. These are phones whose functionality is intentionally locked down, with the purest examples only supporting calls and SMS. On the other side of the spectrum, we have smartphones. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that most people owning one use it more than they’d like. ...