Does easier production make it harder to know what is worth making?

Easier production makes it harder to know what is worth making, because the friction that once helped filter — the cost and difficulty of producing anything — has been removed, leaving the entire burden of judgment on the maker.

Friction as a filter

When producing is costly, you do not produce casually; the cost itself filters out the unworthy. When producing is cheap, that filter vanishes, and the question of worthiness falls entirely on your own judgment, unassisted by difficulty.

The exposed judgment

This is harder, not easier. The maker must now supply the discernment that friction once provided, deciding among infinite possibilities without the helpful pressure of scarcity. Ease of production does not lighten the work of judgment; it removes a crutch and leaves the maker to stand alone.

In essence

Easier production makes knowing what is worth making harder because it removes the friction that once filtered possibilities. The burden of discernment, formerly shared with difficulty, now rests entirely on the maker's judgment.

Related questions

Is difficulty necessary for good art? Not difficulty itself, but some pressure that forces discernment — whether from constraint, cost, or self-imposed discipline.

How do you judge without friction? Slowly, honestly, and by whether the work would still need to exist if no one asked for it.