Just a heads up for listeners with sensitive ears.

Today's episode includes a curse word that we are leaving unbleaped.

You'll understand why, as you're listening, using that word is kind of the point of the whole show.

So you've been warned.

Enjoy.

This is 99% Invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

And I'm here today with producer Chris Barubei.

Hey, Chris. Hey, Roman. So, Chris, what do you have for us today?

Okay, today I want to talk to you about a subject that I think is going to make you really mad.

Okay. Well, I have a pretty high baseline of mad right now, but I'm going to let you go ahead.

Yeah, I feel like right now, most people I talk to have like a relatively high baseline of anger. So where would you say you are today, though? I think I'm having a pretty good day. Let's put a set of four. Okay. Let's see how high we can get you by the end of this. So this is my experiment today. I want to see how high we can get you on the anger scale from one to ten.

Okay. That sounds like a plan. So what's the story that's going to make me so mad?

Okay. So, Roman, I want you to think about smart devices. Okay, okay. I think you're on the right track, okay, to making me mad. Go ahead. Yeah. So let's just start. Think about all the devices that

you own that used to be mostly analog. Today, they are now digital in some way. So can you think of some examples in your life.

Well, I can think of one very obvious example that drives me crazy. I have a smart thermostat in my house. It came with the house. I did not install it. And I live in the Bay Area, so I don't need heat a lot.

But every time I need to turn it on, which is like a few times a year, the smart

thermostat is like disconnected from the heater.

And for some reason, unknown reason, I cannot make sense of it.

And all I want is just an old-fashioned brass, round Honeywell thermostat, old-fashioned

analog thermostat that can just turn on and set it to a temperature and turn it off when I don't

need it instead of this other thing that drives me absolutely crazy. So, Roman, this is a pretty

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