What is conviviality?

A convivial tool is one that

• anyone can learn by using it
• you can bend to your own purposes
• lets you leave with your own stuff
• needs you less than you need it

The opposite is a tool that

• only works inside a system you can’t see or leave
• decides what you may do with it
• gets harder to live without the longer you use it

A hammer and a bicycle are convivial, because anyone can use them, repair them and find uses their makers never imagined.

Illich saw six ways tools go wrong

• Biological degradationbecomes our Footprint question
• Radical monopolybecomes our Lock-in question
• Overprogrammingbecomes our Self-direction question
• Polarizationbecomes our Power question
• Obsolescencebecomes our Longevity question
• Frustrationbecomes our Delivery question

Those six became the six questions on How we score.

Why it fits software

• Accounts are hard to leave and files sit in formats only one company reads.
• Feeds are built around what keeps us scrolling.
• A small tool that does one job and lets you walk away with your files is convivial in exactly Illich’s sense, and so is a large open-source project with the same habits.
• Cheap AI-assisted building means more people can now make a small tool for themselves and their friends, which is how tools were supposed to feel all along.

What conviviality is not

• Free, open source or small, though those often help.
• Against technology. Illich argued for tools that serve people, and he was fine with sophisticated ones.
• Decided by who made the tool. A big company can build a fairly convivial one, and a charming indie app can still lock you in, so each review scores the actual tool.