The Tyranny of the Marginal User
Why consumer software gets worse over time: companies optimize for the next user who might leave (the "marginal user") rather than existing users who derive real value, creating a race to the bottom where apps become zombified infinite scroll machines.
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the structure of the digital economy means most of our digital lives are designed to take advantage of this state. A substantial fraction of the world’s most brilliant, competent, and empathetic people, armed with near-unlimited capital and increasingly god-like computers, spend their lives serving Marl.
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Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together about the marginal user. Let’s call him Marl. The first thing you need to know about Marl is that he has the attention span of a goldfish on acid. Once Marl opens your app, you have about 1.3 seconds to catch his attention with a shiny image or triggering headline, otherwise he’ll swipe back to TikTok and never open your app again.
Marl’s tolerance for user interface complexity is zero. As far as you can tell he only has one working thumb, and the only thing that thumb can do is flick upwards in a repetitive, zombielike scrolling motion. As a product designer concerned about the wellbeing of your users, you might wonder - does Marl really want to be hate-reading articles for 6 hours every night? Is Marl okay? You might think to add a setting where Marl can enter his preferences about the content he sees: less politics, more sports, simple stuff like that. But Marl will never click through any of your hamburger menus, never change any setting to a non-default. You might think Marl just doesn’t know about the settings. You might think to make things more convenient for Marl, perhaps add a little “see less like this” button below a piece of content. Oh boy, are you ever wrong. This absolutely infuriates Marl. On the margin, the handful of pixels occupied by your well-intentioned little button replaced pixels that contained a triggering headline or a cute image of a puppy. Insufficiently stimulated, Marl throws a fit and swipes over to TikTok, never to return to your app. Your feature decreases DAUs in the A/B test. In the launch committee meeting, you mumble something about “user agency” as your VP looks at you with pity and scorn. Your button doesn’t get deployed. You don’t get your promotion. Your wife leaves you. Probably for Marl.
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TLDR
• OKCupid went from sophisticated personality matching (eerily accurate 95%+ match scores) to just another Tinder clone—a microcosm of how consumer software systematically degrades despite billions in R&D
• The economic mechanism: flat-fee/ad models + network effects mean companies care about marginal user retention, not existing user value, so they optimize for "Marl"—the next user who might churn
• "Marl" has goldfish attention span, zero tolerance for UI complexity, and only scrolls—features that increase agency (preferences, settings) actually decrease DAUs in A/B tests because they interrupt the scroll
• We've all been "Marl" (scrolling in bed, at airport, avoiding painful thoughts)—the entire digital economy is designed to exploit this diminished state rather than serve our intentional, creative selves
• Tools that enhance human agency remain hobbyist projects used by nerds; if they get successful, Marl-serving companies acquire and kill them
In Detail
The piece opens with a concrete example: OKCupid in 2016 had long essays, hundreds of personality questions, and match scores that were "eerily good"—but it devolved into another swipe-based Tinder clone. This isn't isolated: Google Search has decayed, most consumer software trends toward minimal agency and infinite scroll, while Reddit and Craigslist remain useful precisely because they're frozen in time. The puzzle: how does software get worse despite massive R&D budgets and AI progress?
The answer is the "Tyranny of the Marginal User." Companies optimize for DAUs (Daily Active Users), but since most products charge flat fees or are ad-supported, they don't care about existing users—they care about the marginal user, the next person who might churn. The author personifies this as "Marl": 1.3 second attention span, zero UI complexity tolerance, only capable of zombie scrolling. Features that increase user agency—preferences, settings, "see less" buttons—actually DECREASE DAUs in A/B tests because they interrupt the scroll with a few pixels that could have been a triggering headline. So these features get killed, designers don't get promoted, and apps devolve into engagement traps.
Critically, "Marl" isn't just a person—it's a state of mind we all enter when scrolling half-consciously in bed or reflexively opening our phones to avoid discomfort. The world's most brilliant people, armed with unlimited capital and god-like computers, spend their lives serving this diminished state. Meanwhile, tools that enhance human agency remain hobbyist projects. If they get too successful, Marl-serving companies flush with ad revenue or VC money acquire and kill them. The result: systematic degradation of human agency in digital products, driven by rational economic incentives.