The paradox of expecting output from effort

I was invited to a small roundtable for a popular private members club recently. The club's leadership wanted feedback on how technology could make the member experience more personal.

They presented the room with ideas for new features on their app:

"Preset your favourite drink."

"Remember a preferred seat or table."

"Track whether you've visited this particular club before."

All well-intentioned. And all in the name of a more personalised experience.

The roundtable brought together senior digital expertise – fellow agency heads, former Apple leadership and myself – people who use technology daily and build with it professionally.

Yet we all pushed back.

The club's personal experience would probably improve if they removed the app altogether.

Storing a preferred drink on an app doesn't make the experience more personal, it makes the staff less inclined to ask. And it's a moment of real connection lost to a screen.

The paradox is that the club's personal experience would probably improve if they removed the app altogether.

It feels like a modern problem. But our instinct to reach for more when faced with a challenge has been documented for centuries.

In 1865, the economist William Stanley Jevons observed that as coal-burning became more efficient, consumption went up rather than down. One could argue that if supply had been restricted instead, cleaner alternatives might have emerged sooner.

The same pattern keeps repeating itself:

fuel-efficient cars lead to more driving,

faster broadband leads to heavier data usage,

more powerful phone batteries get eaten up by more power-hungry apps.

Don't mistake removal for defeat.

By the end of the roundtable, the pushback was unexpected but welcomed. The conclusion the room reached was a good one – the app could extend the club experience off-site, rather than attempting to replace human interaction on-site.

Useful off-site features might be:

How busy is the club right now?

Smarter event recommendations,

More granular pre-booking tools.

But once you're in the club, if you need to reach for an app, that’s a gap in good old-fashioned hospitality that no amount of stored preferences can fill.

The lesson here is something I practice often at Function & Form – the output of effort doesn't always have to be addition.

Don't mistake removal for defeat. It's often the most effective outcome.