Buying a table from IKEA or Amazon is always cheaper than having a local craftswoman create one from the wood of a tree that fell down in your garden.  High quality electric cars cost more and use more energy to make than a diesel and petrol cars, so electric cars are bad for the planet and economy.  The same is said about veggie burgers, about going digital, and so on. 

In fact, the same can be said for most innovations – the initial upfront costs of exploration, discovery, experimentation, scaling, etc. is more expensive, more resource intensive than the existing system.  The existing system exists and have been developed over time to maximise the efficiency of the current processes and ways of doing things.  

Doing things differently costs more because it is different.  In many ways, it costs more because it is custom work.  Expecting the same results from a new innovation as we do from an existing process will just keep things they way they are.  Innovation and change often require a longer term view.  

Over time the custom work may evolve into its own system and figure out its own efficiency metrics, but at the beginning it is better view and measured as custom work.  And yes, we can choose to keep some work custom. 

The choice is up to us. There is a time and place for both.

Photo by Mikesh Kaos