Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

I think a huge factor I haven't seen mentioned is continuous delivery. How often were new operating systems released? How often were new products announced? When you bought software, the devs would be hard at work working on the next version with the incentive to make it good enough that people would buy again.

Now software is continually released. "Major" updates are expected every year, and they're often free and people are expected to upgrade. Subscription models have rolled out, so while directly interacting with your customer probably leads to a better product, there's less incentive to re-invent the wheel - you don't need to upsell all your previous clients.

I would assume that all of this is leading to better products, but all of the baby steps make it all seem so lacklustre.

For example, compare the iPhone 13 Pro's camera to, say, the iPhone 8's camera. Had Apple waited 5 years to release the upgrade, the new camera would have blown. peoples. freaking. minds. However, since it's been getting slightly better each year, we instead have people complaining about how the only difference is a slightly better camera.

We're out of sync. We're unaligned. We've lost that magic feeling because we aren't consistent.

This lack of consistency seeps into our work and the whole industry loses confidence. Just look at the sad state of software reliability and performance, despite the numerous advancements in hardware.

That's not to say we haven't made progress with technology too. I just don't care about a lot of it. Procedural art is a neat bar trick, but ultimately doesn't strike me as a viewer unless it's explained crisply. Cryptocurrency is a scam at best, or a force for destabilization at worst. Digital currency has been a thing for years, but has gotten slower and more cumbersome in my personal experience recently. Social media is a well accepted problem. Video games seem to be in a rut, as with Hollywood (maybe I'm living under a rock as per usual?). My love for computing hardware has waned; my phones torment me, my USB ports and dongles are duds or act sporadically. Wireless tech is wrought with interference and power issues. Must I continue?

These probably sound like the rummagings of an aging man, grown discontent with the kids these days. To some extent that's also probably correct. But, I think it's worth noting that I do find a lot of excitement in this world still... Just with lower tech hobbies. Ice skating, woodworking, ultimate frisbee, music, and more still dominate my thoughts. As does the horrifying world of trying to date post-college. Maybe, just maybe, it was the hyper-focused tech driven world of the past that was the problem. Maybe, it's this new post-covid era we're entering which will show us that there's more to life than disruption and the "next big thing" every week. I can dream can't I?

It's time to settle in, buckle up, and refine what we know we want, what we have, and what we ultimately need in life.

You can still mod videogames, but I get not wanting to look at a computer after your 9-5 of looking at a computer all day.

I'm watching my younger brother get into software right now for the first time, and it's delightful. Every day there's something new that he's thrilled about.

What's funny is that he's having a blast playing with the same types of tech that I make a living using and get bored by. A few weeks ago it was getting his hobby website up on the real internet with his own VPS and his own domain. Last week he was ecstatic when he got MongoDB hooked up properly to back the project so he could save things. This week it was getting nginx configured to properly work with Vue router so that refresh works. These tools seem outright boring to me today, but his excitement is infectious.

It's easy for us to say that tech today is boring, or the barrier to entry is too high, because we're now experts. My brother's excitement in the mundane makes me reevaluate my own nostalgia and cynicism.