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Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#161
post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

Ads are pointless. No matter how much human capital was invested in making targeted ads possible, only very rarely I see something that I might be interested in buying. And I can't remember a thing that I bought due to ads. They are a better signal of what to not buy.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#162
I share your frustrations with Chatbots on the phone so much.

Weeks ago I was dealing with chest pain/heart pain. I ended up trying to call a bunch of clinics/doctors to try to get a recommendation of where to go. Everywhere I called, they would have a spiel about covid that would last 1/2 minutes. It would make me livid and my pain worse.

I understand that thats partly my fault for being impatient. But it felt so hard to just reach a doctor/nurse or anyone to talk to at the time.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#164

I think there is an 'optimum' level for technology of all kinds, below that you really want more and it is clear that there is room for improvement. But once the optimum has been reached any further additions will degrade the experience. Examples: Car controls: pre: direct taps and gauges plumbed into engine parts and such, real switches and levers. optimum: does what it should, not more, not less, more reliable than…

Very selective memory... You've picked the most streamlined from each older generation, and compared it to the noisiest of the current generation. Though driving a car (I'll assume a manual that you can maintain, not an automatic with the monstrous blackbox analog computer) that is a quarter-century old and using a flip phone in 2021 is legit boomer cred. [thumbs up emoji]

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#165
post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

I really hear you on the product quality, but that is more the result of business systems.

I find it so frustrating that I struggle or fail find quality products - for everything from forzen pizza to jeans. For some cases (frozen pizza) I just opt out. Others, I just give up and accept that I'll have to replace my jeans every 2-3 years. I try to buy recommendations from Wirecutter and do slightly better, but still so annoyed that everything is made so damn cheaply.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#167
I bet homelessness was less intense before the proliferation of IT. I've been unhoused for about 3.5 years now, last few months I do have a shelter situation and it's been much easier to gain weight and study. For my first 5 years in tech in SF I was stepping over homeless people on my way to my tech job asking why they didn't just pull themselves up by their bootstraps like I did in high school living with my parents. Turns out having a place to plug in a computer and a 15" monitor and a shower and clean clothes to interview in is a so-called privilege, no matter the condition of the place or quality of parenting.

It's more of an externality to IT than a direct problem as I see it. People are plugged in so it's easier to step over the problems around them. We have access to growth all over the world through chat and forums, so why would we spend our precious time on people who can most likely take us nowhere better than we presently are? Being homeless on Twitter was interesting, because it's like "if you can affort a smart phone then you can afford food;" I think the pandemic has erased that stereotype, at least. Now it's like "you have Twitter, why can't you jump on Zoom?" and "if you have time to Tweet then you have time to apply to a job"--indeed, time, but perhaps not the space or bandwidth or power or editing software to run more than Twitter. This may extend to social services via small screens but I don't have much experience with that.

We could extend the effect to reduction of menial and low-mid level management jobs as well, which keeps people working 2-3 entry levels jobs as they start families in their mid-20s and beyond. I'm less sure of that case as it starts to get complex. I saw a different dynamic in my service jobs recently than I did as a teenager in the late '90s, but I wasn't there long enough to dissect it in detail. I can say when I was in high school most of my co-workers were high schoolers except the odd "older" person, recently it was almost an opposite proportion with perhaps 1 high schooler on each team. More competition = less opportunity for the vulnerable/unmarketable homeless population is the connection.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#168
post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

> Advertising. I know this is an extreme view I think your view isn't too extreme enough, frankly. I feel like if I took the time I could compose a lengthy essay showing that we can directly blame advertising for a significant portion of societal ills. Advertising promotes narcissism, selfishness, and entitlement; it convinces you that you need things you don't need, happiness can be bought, you what you have isn't g…

I'd read that essay.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#169
Microsoft has made my early career incredibly difficult and sucked all of the joy out of engineering. Their software like Outlook and Teams has given me eye strain, RSI, and teeth grinding. In my experience the Microsoft ecosystem promotes a culture of micromanaging, sniping, and gatekeeping.

Re: Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?

#170
post #4

Advertising. I know this is an extreme view, but I think any advertising other than a spec sheet style ad (just facts) should be banned. I feel like it steals your attention and mindshare day after day. The ads I see on TV now (rarely, as I don't watch live TV much) are just so horrible. Dripping with emotions and trying to tug on your heartstrings to sell some toilet bowl cleaner or some other garbage. Social media.…

I bet you'll love these before-and-after photos of Sao Paolo after their outdoor advertising ban: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret... Anti-advertising was one of the pet causes of Generation X, back before more pressing things like "the war on terror" and a financial collapse and health care crisis took the stage. And those are bigger deals, but man, advertising is just awful too.

I love that!

Here where I live in Canada, billboards aren't allowed except on indigenous land. While I totally respect it, it's a horrible eyesore.

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