Friction is everywhere right now. And it’s not the thing that slows us down anymore – it’s the thing that pulls us in. That makes us linger. That makes things matter. Resistance has turned into encounter, engagement and connection.

Alongside our Friction Formula – helping brands think about how friction actually works – we identified five ways it’s currently showing up in culture:

  1. Tactility – the real, the physical, the touchable.
  2. Imperfection – human error, desirable and deliberate.
  3. Inconvenience – effort, struggle, the scenic route over the fast lane.
  4. Nuance – slow thought in a world drowning in hot takes.
  5. Ambiguity – mystery, seduction, the thrill of the unknown.

Inconvenience

Here, we’ll look at the third pillar, which is all about choosing the harder path, honouring craft, relishing the challenge. Forget instant gratification – friction asks you to lean in. Olympic double gold figure skater Alysa Liu puts it best: “I love struggling, actually. It makes me feel alive.”

That same pulse runs through our SEEDs. In Too Viral, we explore how virality is becoming a liability. In an always-on culture, when everything is optimised for smoothness, meaning stops sticking.

Notes on Resale shows us the primal thrill of the hunt. As Protein’s head of strategy Joanna Lowry writes: “Online shopping today is hyper-optimised. Often, it’s efficient but sterile. Resale reintroduces friction, awakening something primal: the hunt.”

Piracy’s Back takes it further. Streaming is easy. But scrolling through servers, digging for what you want, downloading it, owning it – that’s friction in its most satisfying form.

Case studies