“I Started Planning a Trip and Ended Up Watching a Dancing Cat…”

Local Discovery Today is Scattered and Tiring

The trip planning process today doesn’t feel exciting at all.

When you’re trying to figure out what to do in a new city, or even your own, you end up jumping between platforms. You scroll through TikTok or Instagram for inspiration, check maps and reviews, watch a 3-minute YouTube video or Short, target a spot, and then ask friends for recommendations. And somehow, it circles back to social media and gets hijacked by some random cat dancing video.

Discovery has become this tangled ball of yarn that leaves you exhausted before you’ve even left your couch.

The Algorithm Decides Where You Go

Most of the information we see is just a trend, making every experience feel the same. Our direction is decided by an algorithm, where being “pretty and popular” has become the most important thing. As a result, places with truly great service and products are starting to vanish.

We line up for the trend, not the experience.

It has become a cycle. People who are good at what they do have become less important than those who are good at marketing. You might end up buying something mediocre, simply because they knew how to sell it.

We’ve almost forgotten how to walk without a destination. We follow the ranks and the noise, losing the simple happiness of discovering a hidden gem.

That’s because these platforms are built to keep you in, not to take you out.

We show off the fancy lives we follow, while at the same time knowing we’re lost — we feel it and everyone talks about it — but there’s still no solution for this sinking boat.

But why?

A System That Doesn’t Work For Anyone

Why does it feel like we’re powerless to change it?

As a marketer, I see this from the inside — and it’s painful to watch my clients suffer. They’re forced to spend more time on “shooting” content than on actually “doing” what they love. They pour tons of money into these crazy complex ads systems just to save their business, only to get 10,000+ impressions. But at the end of the day? No one is actually walking through the door.

This combination is making those who are truly good at what they do vanish from the street corners. One day, our physical streets will look just like our digital feeds.

There Has to Be a Better Way

So we started asking a different question:

Why do we even want to discover in the first place?

Not for trends.
Not for content.

But for something much more human.

We love being the person who knows a great spot.
We love sharing it with friends.
We love that feeling of finding something special — and wanting it to last.

Discovery, at its core, isn’t about consumption.

It’s about connection.

That’s why we’re creating intrip — an app for true discovery.

intrip is here to bring everyone together. To love where we live, and to share that love through a living map built by everyone.

This is only the beginning. In our next article, we’ll dive into how we’re turning this vision into a reality — and how we plan to fix the sinking boat.

If you’re interested in what we’re building, we welcome you to follow along and be part of our journey.