Every year, I sit in these fancy amphitheaters and watch the biggest names in tech promise how their latest phone, smartwatch, app, chatbot, or doohickey will make our lives better. This calendar app? It’s going to make you more efficient. This smartwatch? Get ready for six-pack abs and a sub-four-hour marathon time. AI on your phone will give you so much of your time back that, buddy, you won’t know what to do with it.
And then I get these shiny new inventions sent to me. I open boxes, download apps, interview founders, and get to testing. Sometimes, these things truly do make my life better. Other times, they send me spiraling thanks to data overload, meaningless metrics, or sensors that just don’t work.
I’m willing to experiment because I want to work smarter, not harder. But I’ve learned from experience that these new gadgets are just as likely to leave me frustrated as they are to make me a healthier, more productive person.
So, that’s what Optimizer is for. Each week, I’ll dig deep into an aspect of tech — be it a gadget, app, policy, or emerging trend — and answer that little question at the back of all our minds: Is this tech going to make my life better?
I’ve already been doing a lot of that on The Verge, and I promise we’re going to have so much fun (and maybe an existential crisis or two) along the way. Verge subscribers will get exclusive access to Optimizer every Friday starting September 5th. You can expect personal essays, unhinged notes from the testing lab, thoughtful deep dives into debunking wellness and AI grifts, and the occasional interview with the people who promise to make us the best versions of ourselves.
I’m excited that Optimizer is the latest addition to The Verge’s lineup of subscriber-only newsletters. You can subscribe for $7 / month or $50 / year to read it on theverge.com or in your inbox. A Verge subscription also includes access to all of our exclusive newsletters, RSS feeds, unlimited articles, fewer ads, commenting badges, and more.
