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Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

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Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#131

Post by bluescrn »

gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

There's also the fact that much modern tech tends to be very locked-down, discourages tinkering/creativity, and is built to push ads/subscriptions/in-app-purchases.

But there's rarely a 'wow' factor to new tech any more. Everything is incremental improvement and the era of huge leaps forward is well behind us. The step up from a C64 to an Amiga, or a SNES to a Playstation, or an early iPhone from a feature phone, or Win3.1 to Win9x - those were serious upgrades.

But going from a PS5 Pro to PS5, an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 13, 1080p to 4K, an i7 to a 5-generations-newer i7, or a GTX1080 to an RTX3080 - they're nice incremental steps, but not revolutionary leaps forwards.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#133

Post by rideontime »

didericis wrote: post #82
onion2k wrote: post #66

There's a good Douglas Adams quote that explains this; Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things. Apply thi…

I like pithy quotes like this, but I can’t help feeling we over rely on them/take stuff like this too seriously. There is no rule that everything has to get boring after 35. If you think like that it’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.

It's an observation of human behavior, not a rule, and noticing it makes it easier for us to do something about it.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#134

Post by kijin »

Tech is just tech. It's what you can do with tech that makes it either cool or not.

In the past, there seemed to be so many cool possibilities. That coolness infected the tech itself, so the tech looked cool too. But now a lot of those possibilities have been explored already. It's not the Wild West anymore, we've got plenty of interstate highways and railways crossing that space, and we've witnessed the not-cool parts as well.

Fortunately, this also helps us see where we might still find coolness. Just do something cool, regardless of tech. Who cares if your cool project doesn't involve any new tech? Who cares which frontend framework is the best when you're building a tree house for your kids, roasting a steak, whipping up a sexy cocktail, putting up a simple HTML form to help neighbors in need, saving the Earth, exploring the seas, the mountains, and the outer space? There's always more coolness out there. :)

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#135

Post by rideontime »

For me it was realizing that the "cost savings" my employers were providing their customers came solely from the staffing costs they were able to eliminate by laying off their workers and extracting more productivity from their remaining workers with our technology. My fat salary comes at the cost of several others'.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#136

Post by lotsofpulp »

nukemaster wrote: post #50
davidn20 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue smartphones are one of the best all-in-one devices for creating...most people just don't use it that way.

The hardware is awesome, it's the social stuff around them that make them useless.

When I setup a new iPhone, I do not think I am forced to expose myself to any social stuff other than SMS/MMS/Phone calls. And I think those can be disabled too, or at least the notifications.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#137

Post by rgrieselhuber »

We've allowed high finance to build tech behemoths that swallow up smaller, innovative companies and build powerful barriers to competition. We've also outsourced our manufacturing capabilities to other countries, partly induced by, and partly inducing, a race to the bottom for cheap devices and frivolous gadgets.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#138

Post by patrickk »

xnorswap wrote: post #92
supernovae wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still get indy games year over year that take the industry by storm. factorio, stardew valley, undertale, don’t starve, super hot, goat simulator, cup head, rocket league, kerbal space program and so many others. heck steam, Sony and Microsoft are competing to distribute this IP and open it up across platforms and it’s never been better.

All of those games you've mentioned are at least 5 years old now, many coming up to a decade old if you count their early access. There was a golden age of indie gaming 5-10 years ago, but it does feel like that has passed somewhat.

Games nowadays are often updated for a long time (e.g. Factorio), so the initial launch date is less relevant. I would argue that indie games are doing really well right now, and the AAA gaming companies' reputations are in the gutter.

EA, DICE, Take Two, Ubisoft, Bioware, Konami, even the once vaunted CDProjekt Red's reputations are in tatters (of course, they still sell tons of games). Gamers are tired of copy and paste money grabs, full of bugs on launch and overhyped to the moon.

The accessibility of game development tools to almost anyone globally, the pandemic, and the relative ease of digital distribution is a boon to indie game makers (Steam, Epic, Itch, GOG, Indiegala....).

Valheim, Among Us, Project Zomboid (launched 2013, becoming much more popular recently), Escape from Tarkov are all examples of indie games doing well. Check out /r/patientgamers and related subs and you'll see more examples.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#139

Post by tiluha »

hwers wrote: post #52
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

Are you sure? I'd like to hear the take of someone in their early twenties on this. My feeling is that a lot of them are terrified by it themselves too.

I'm 22. I feel like there hasn't been any major technologcal shift since ~2014. Phones have gotten faster and more capable, but are still mostly the same. Social media has gotten bigger, but hasn't innovated in a meaningful way. "AI" has gotten better which is fascinating, but in the end it will most likely just be used for manipulation, surveillance and manipulation. I can't really think of any technology to look forward to, that would improve my life or change the world (in a positive sense).

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#140

Post by auggierose »

Technology is super interesting right now. Deep learning and computational optimisation in general just unlocked an important part of what was thought to be too hard before, and now we need to combine it with other things in the right way. Of course, if you think you can solve it ALL with deep learning, you will be disappointed. If you think of DL as an additional tool in your box, you just got so much more powerful.
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