Opaque top-down systems vs do-it-yourself

I make the hour-long drive down to Silicon Valley with the help of Waze even though I know the way there. I use Waze because it rouses me from daydreams in time to take an exit. It's always alert even if I’m not — and does even more than that. It watches, it records, and it remembers where I go. That's fine even though, for all I know, it sends all that…