That's the rub, numerous times you can't cancel until the x is done (for gym memberships it used to be a whole year). Or alternatively look at prime cancelling is made difficult.
Another issue is they tend to get more unnoticed as time goes on and little additional fees start creating in.
Just avoid subscriptions when possible has served me well
[Vinge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge) was a professor of mathematics and computer science. I'd expect him to get things right. Funny enough I don't remember that bit at all from fire upon the deep.
> for example, almost all of their predictions weren’t just wrong… in hindsight, given how the future played out, they were asking the wrong question
Do you have an example of this? My (poor) memory remembers "it's going to change how people buy things", was the big deal at the time, and it seems like it was a great prediction.
Another issue is they tend to get more unnoticed as time goes on and little additional fees start creating in.
Just avoid subscriptions when possible has served me well