Easy-bake bikes...just add yogurt

In today's chapter, Crawford seems to be making two main points.  The first is that we have gone from needing to know how everything we own works to being incapable of even changing out own oil.  The second is that we really want to be in control of customizing the things we own, but usually aren't. 

I liked Crawford's analogy that compared the motorcycle to a cake mix.  It's completely true that if you gave me a cake mix and I didn't have to add anything, I would be suspicious.  I saw a brownie mix this summer that was "just add yogurt" and thought it looked like the most disgusting thing ever.  I guess I'm a little mistrustful of anything that comes too easily, but according to Crawford, that's what's happening more and more.  Things are made to be automatic, but in the process we lost the ability to troubleshoot.  Since marketers know we want to feel some level of involvement with the products we use, they use sneaky ad campaigns to make us feel like we are engaged with the process of making things without actually doing very much.  Cake mixes are easier, but we miss out on the experience of actually baking a cake.