Embrace Chaos
“I gotta be in control…”
This is something we murmur to ourselves all the time. Growing up in a modern society that we perceive and are taught to believe to be full of preventable dangers and programmable successes likely predisposes us to this insatiable desire and obsession. Or, modernism is not to blame here, it’s simply just human nature, part of the self-protection mechanism that we have to credit and rely on for the survival and glory of human species.
We want to be in control of a lot of things, like where we are and where we are going, but, of course, that won’t be enough. We want to be in control of the situations facing us and the environment surrounding us, which is, and at the same time also more than, a massive accumulation of every other element thereof. We want to go into a room full of strangers and be welcomed (control what others think of us). We want to put on a show just as planned and rehearsed (control what happens). We want to have a relationship and not have our heart broken (control how we are treated). It’s a temptation hard to resist and a hardwired framework that keeps on building.
It makes us aware, alert and adaptive; sometime, it makes things seem a little easier and more effective.
It’s also energy consuming, stressful and, most of the times, impossible to accomplish. We can be the nicest, most charming person, and someone still gives us a cold shoulder for no reason. We can have the best plan and personnel, and the show still has to be canceled because of a virus outbreak. We can give our all to someone, yet it still might not mean anything from the other side of the table. Life is full of unpredictable events, and free will is invincible, even when it’s not that visible at all. Ultimately, we are just forever hanging in and traveling back and forth between different cycles of concurrent chaotic states, trying to take momentary control over what we think matters to us, and, eventually and inevitably, giving it away.
That’s why I titled this article — embrace chaos, and of course, I am not here to discuss life or ideologies (or relationships, which I certainly am not qualified to opine on, in the first place). I want to talk about MOFFAS and the underlying philosophy that it’s built on to simply be comfortable with uncertainties and the lack of “control.”
Granted, due to marketing reasons, MOFFAS is being categorized as a shopping platform, for it does provide shopping related services, delivered as a platform-like experience. However, it is quite different than, if not completely opposite to, the typical e-commerce model (all-in-one system for vendor boarding, catalog, inventory, payment, logistics, etc.). Don’t get me wrong — being a diehard Amazon citizen, I think the traditional and ever-improving e-commerce platform model is a proven, efficient and, very likely, preferred way to do e-commerce. What MOFFAS tries to do is to provide some additional or alternative options when people want something a tad different.
Platforms are usually designed to be “controlling” and “isolated.” From merchandising to logistics, the aim is almost always to standardize, uniform and unify, thereby rendering a controlled environment. As a mediocre developer myself, I wouldn’t do it any differently if I were to build a platform today either. It is the best and might as well be the only way to keep a multi-member platform under control and thus secure and functioning. It works, from Amazon to Overstock, and keeps on delivering every day. Since we are all very familiar with this structure, I am going to skip it here and go straight to discuss MOFFAS below.
Well, with MOFFAS, things are seen and done in a different way. I don’t think I can ever build a system to have absolute control (or anything close to or even remotely resembles that) over a complicated body of complicated things, i.e., platforms and all the active agents in the field. It won’t be a project, but, likely, one infinitive nonlinear path. Getting “bigger” will be the sole strategy in this voyage — build on top of the current state of operation and keep expanding. During that dreamy chase, given the inherent centralizing nature of the platform model, we expend, consume and waste an excessive amount of energy and resources, sabotaging smaller independent economies as collateral damage (and then spend millions on marketing campaigns to redeem ourselves); because, ironically, it is even more difficult to give away power and control than obtain it, cue the notorious endowment effect.
That’s why I think there should be a place for little things like MOFFAS in this big world of giants. MOFFAS is not here to replace anyone, not even a bare minimum Wordpress site. It is designed to work with existing e-commerce frameworks, such as Shopify, Big Commerce, etc., as well as bare minimum Wordpress sites. The philosophy is simple: enough wars in the world — I just want everyone to get along. It’s also deeply rooted in my very personal pet peeve: waste. Why does this already oversaturated market need another redundant platform when I can be the bridge and ferry? One might argue that without a basic platform one is limited in what they can do, because you cannot put your customers in your controlled environment (to “induce” certain behavior you desire). Of course, you would lose that power there.
However, if we look at it from a different vantage point, the landscape might look a bit different: without my own imaginary territory, I can freely transform and flow through everyone else’s as an innocent traveller and, occasionally, as a welcomed ally and partner, in the department that requires my input. I am everywhere, everyone and, yet, I am still myself. It might sound a bit eerie now for a tech article, but it is indeed what MOFFAS fundamentally does and will do in the future as it gets better and smarter. On the upper layer, it is a facilitative companion suite to other sites, whether it’s an online shopping site, an e-commerce platform, a blog or cnn.com, as an informed interface between users and content, supporting and handling continuous user-centric activities, from one site to another. On the base layer, it decomposes the platform model into smaller components, and then, from the molecular level up, assembles and builds a fresh responsive environment as well as operation on the fly, from communication to advertisement. In this way, admittedly with some hardcoded efforts, it does not have to address every situation and every change within (or collectively, “chaos”) in advance (one of the main reasons for excessive web crawling, privacy prying, high overhead, etc.) and race with the universe to stay proactive and prepared at all times. It does not have to carry more than enough and fewer than too many products for consumers to find a preferred choice and stay competitive. Rather, it nimbly creates a dynamic, accommodating and seamless experience for the users, in and for that specific moment only, all on top of the “right” choice. It restores the individuality and brand identity by placing consumers back into the environment of the actual seller’s, reducing the impact of unpredictable price wars that the platform model inevitably causes and propels by nature. It gives freedom. And, on a side note, although it will be the topic of another post, I can’t help but mention that MOFFAS is mainly set up in the client-side environment; hence, it can be more private on demand and doesn’t have to carry that much personal information to be a vulnerable target to begin with.
Next time, I am going to talk about another advantage of MOFFAS over traditional platforms, which is the grand concept of sustainability. It is something I increasingly care about as I get older and has affected me heavily in life decisions and, apparently, now product design. Hopefully it will make more sense than this one 😬.
Here I am ending this short note with something I remind myself daily to keep myself sane and balanced:
Experience is always transient.
Yet, life is eternal chaos.
Never be content because you have; never be frustrated because you have not. It’s all in the past already.
