> The world is becoming optimized for the dominant aesthetic of the internet.

Nope. The world is becoming ever more communicated. Ideas travel faster. Good ideas - and sometime bad ones - are copied around the globe.

Why should I be able to eat sushi just in Japan?

> I swear: every trendy, optimized-for-algorithms place has the same lights, the same chairs, and the same damn avocado toast.

It is difficult to be unique in a 8 billion people world. If your design is good, I will copy it. That forces people to look harder for new things. There is more originality and novelty than ever before in human history. That so much people has access to it, that it can be produced cheap and enjoyed by millions is not a bad thing.

> The issue is this: hotel visitors know they’re getting something generic. That’s the point. Mid-tier hotels advertise safety and reliability. They sell risk minimization, not experience maximization. Algorithms, though, advertise authenticity while selling commodities.

McDonalds (1955) predates Intel (1968) and the rise of the algorithm. Algorithms has nothing to do with your travel experience. You may get the recommendation from an algorithm that you should visit the Eiffel Tower. 50 years ago was a travel agent doing that job.

> At first, authentic travel experiences such as tours and cooking classes are too expensive to buy. As they gain popularity, they become standardized and mass-produced.

Should travel be only allowed for the rich?

> In fact, the best parts of travel are precisely the things that technology cannot touch.

In my travels in Japan I use technology to move around. I use technology to read signs and museum notes (I do not speak Japanese). I get lost in a city knowing that I just need to look at my phone to get back to the hotel.

> One caveat: Avoiding algorithms doesn’t apply to traveling in beautiful places. I depend on algorithms in expansive natural parks. When I’m in Patagonia, I want to do the best hike.

Yep. Algorithms looks like a solution, not a problem.

> City travel works best when we put down our phones, seek serendipity, and lean into another culture.

If you really want to know a culture forget about traveling. You need to live there for a few years. Some people may thing that traveling with the locals is being part of their culture. It is not. Working there, getting the same salary, getting the same laws, looking for a job, looking for an apartment... it is very different that hanging out with interesting people. I love to do the later, but it is not being part of the culture, you are still a tourist.(tourism: the commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest.)

> I see travel as a method of learning. It’s an investment. I rarely travel for leisure, recreation or relaxation. I understand why people do it, but at this time in my life, that’s not where my priorities lie.

I feel the same. But I still thing that the people that looks for leisure are traveling. The people that want to relax are traveling. I would have liked the article if it has been less judgemental, eliminated or explained what it means by algorithm - because it makes no sense in some context - and kept things as an opinion not as a truism.