Photo by Micah & Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash
Pin drops in the road
You apologize again
The gap grows wider.
The Last 10 Feet
Decline doesn’t announce itself dramatically. Rot sets in slowly; a little less care, a little more friction.
I wrote this post last year, days after returning from a trip to Singapore and India. The 7-year gap where I sequestered myself to North America made my visit to Asia stark! It felt like an alternate reality — one with a functional approach to adopting technology into life. It is almost as if they still care about how the human experience.
When you call a taxi via Grab from a mall in Singapore, the app knows which exit you’re near, suggests a pickup spot you hadn’t even noticed, and by the time you reach it, your ride is waiting. Seamless. Human.
You call an Uber in Vancouver. The pin drops in the middle of the road. The driver calls. You wave at each other from different corners of Pacific Centre. And for some reason, you’re the one apologizing. That gap between what could be and what we tolerate is widening. And it’s not just rideshares. It’s banking, public infrastructure, day-to-day digital services.
When I was eight years old, I travelled to France, the summer of 1988. I still remember the incredible sights I saw on my first trip as our Swissair flight descended at Charles de Gaulle. My incredulity at the organized, orderly ascent atop the Eiffel Tower, the automated tolls, and even the brand new drive-thru McDos (Apparently, they had just launched them in Paris that year). Compared to the roads of my little hometown, where most roads didn’t use tarmac, but were often tamped down foundations of planned roads, the super highways of France was a world apart. That trip showed me the wonderful things that the West built, and showed progress is here, and unending.
Those days of the wondrous West are well behind us. For inspiration, it might be time to look eastward once again.
Rideshare: Grab vs. Uber
Grab understands three dimensional space in urban settings. It knows the difference between “the front of the mall” and “Exit D on the 3rd floor near the food court.” It routes drivers to where people actually are, not just GPS coordinates on a 2D map. Grab feels like it was made for people1. Uber, increasingly, feels like it was made for stakeholders2.
Banking: Interac vs. UPI
In India, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has become the backbone of a cashless economy. Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016, it enables real-time bank-to-bank transfers using only a phone number or virtual ID. It’s deeply integrated into every bank app, supports QR payments, and works 24/7 without fees. It has revolutionized India’s economy.
In contrast, Canada’s Interac e-Transfer feels clunky. Transfers are limited, require email or sms. Some banks charge fees, and the experience varies depending on whether your recipient has auto-deposit enabled.
The difference isn’t just UX polish—it’s infrastructural intent.
UPI has transformed India’s economy. It’s driven financial inclusion by enabling digital payments for street vendors and rural users alike3. Meanwhile, Canada still treats digital payments as an accessory, not a foundational layer. There is so much we can learn from look at how the “developing” nations have leveraged technology in the past decade, and have moved us forward on what’s possible4.
In their paper Can Cashless Payments Spur Economic Growth?, Tamanna Singh Dubey and Amiyatosh Purnanandam show that cashless payments led to higher household incomes. UPI was adopted more strongly by financially weaker households such as hawkers. Relaxation of borrowing constraints and reduction in transaction costs were the primarily what motivated the adoption.
For a clear side-by-side comparison, this video provides a helpful walkthrough: UPI (India) vs Interac e-Transfer (Canada) – Jefferjit Singh.
How We Let It Slip
Grab in Singapore and India’s UPI are not perfect, but they feel alive. There is an evidence of care, a focus on customer experience, continuous iteration, and pride. Asia is building for people.
On the contrary, North American business feel stale. Uber, Scotiabank, Interac feel like they’ve settled. Like the teams behind them are abstracted away from the customer. The bank teller has no ability to provide a better experience, as they sit outside the trusted zone, just like the customer.
We talk about decline of the West in macro terms—geopolitics, economics, institutional trust. While those make the news, we feel it viscerally in our everyday experiences. The gap between “meh” and “someone cared” is measured in the last 10 feet you have to walk to catch that taxi.