For me it's the advent of LLMs. AI is boring.
For me, AI made tech interesting again.
Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
31–40 of 115 posts
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#32I'm still having a ton of fun with computers, even moreso with the advent of halfway usable AI.
Being able to plug a little intelligence into software with little effort makes many things a lot more convenient. One of my favorites is having an LLM monitoring a long running task and doing something about it if something goes off the rails.
The hurdle to seeing what an idea what look like in implementation has also decreased a lot, so I don't have to worry about picking something small enough to finish over a weekend or two.
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#33The internet and computing started to eat the world. Monetization lead to enshittification.. social issues popping everywhere. What used to be a smaller things with lots of promise ended up as the bedsoil for a special kind of hell, and it makes me want to stay away from mainstream webdev / computing for a while (unless it's for a real benefit for some people or society)
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#34When you were young the internet (or substitute for whatever actually was the new thing) was the new thing, you loved it, you loved trying to push it to it's limits, what can it do? why don't I try this? I can break this! fun!
Now you are older, AI is the new thing, young people[0] are having a blast, pushing it to it's limits, what can it do?! they're hacking. But you're older so you're not interested in shiny new thing.
[0] and some older people to be clear, I admire them most, they keep their mind and curiosity young
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#35Thanks for the great question! I think they used to be so much fun because they were an unexplored frontier.
Perhaps we need a new frontier?
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#36It coincides significantly with YC, Zuckerberg, and Amazon. Internet is becoming soulles by the day.
In my view, this period surprisingly correlates with the first leg of the Fed's balance-sheet expansion [1], from ~$800B to ~$2.2T in 2008.
As a reminder, this was the era of the early iPhones and the first MacBook Air [2] — tech was mature enough, but not yet overcrowded with VCs.
[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttren...
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20080223071127/http://www.apple....
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#37Im changing targets. I've started to hack around with a play.date devices. It's pretty cool.
Every industry has a regression to the mean such that a normal workforce can support it. This is, good thing, but it makes the commercial side very boring (which is also a good thing).
With AI, I think makes it more permissible to do odd and unique things that see fun. Like, why not?
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#38Microcontrollers are fun. The specs of modern MCs are similar to home computers 30 years ago. The community aspect is there. They’re cheap, too.
agreed, I think much of the appeal for me is the physical element of wiring things up and seeing it do something more than changing a few pixels on my screen. Soldering is very relaxing as well.
How you know me so well. I also like how cheap all of the parts and pieces are. It's like the next step after Legos. Although, they have way more interesting Legos today than what I had as a kid. I've bought components with an a specific project in mind, but once it's built I find myself taking them apart and making a new something with it combined with other parts I have lying around. Things are cheap enough that I don't mind so much if I got something wrong and release a little magic smoke.
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#39Ignoring any cultural dynamics that may be at play: maybe sometime after you started getting paid to do it. Personally, I find it enjoyable relative to other jobs, but I've lost most of the recreational enjoyment since I started making a living from it.
Re: Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?
#40When they started to say you cant do that. Gatekeeping the platform by either having a deep skill dependency tree or cooperate gatekeeping and lock down. The first one is more annoying as the "professionalization" kills the creative spark in many OS projects.