When it became reliable
Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
351–360 of 367 posts
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#352It'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…
> Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago 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…
I think you're right. A decade ago the hype behind the self-driving car made it sound pretty cool. The closer we get to having them, the more boring the idea seems. Each new model with improved driver assistance is just a small improvement over the previous model. When a true fully autonomous model lands, it too will just be a small improvement over the previous year's model, which will be almost fully autonomous. The day you can go down to the dealer's lot and buy a self-driving car for the first time will be a fairly uneventful day.
Like you say, in the days of yore the product cycles were long. It was many years between updates. The innovation that took place over that long period was significant, so it was much more wowing when all that behind the scenes work appeared in view.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Looks more like you don’t want to use the word interesting independent of other feelings you may have about the topic. >If you want to understand the world and this topic with more nuance than a teenage hippy sayin “nukes bad Mann” These comments are incredibly and egregiously pointless, wrong, rude, condescending and dismissive, don't do this. I know about the story and a lot of the history of the war and I still d…
Again not sure what exactly are you saying is rude. Just because someone’s offended we need to change the meaning of the word “interesting”?
Nobody is offended and nobody is trying to change the meaning of anything. You're assuming I know nothing about the topic and that's rude and makes for bad discusson. Don't do that.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's interesting is not having a drone, but what you do with them. It's like saying photography is not exciting when everyone has a camera.
It kind of isn't. though.
That's so subjective. My photography is interesting to me, and draws admiration and interest from almost everyone I share it with, even though they themselves have phones with cameras.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm genuinely intrigued, because I seethe with rage just trying to use the keyboard and guestures on smartphones and I can't really imagine trying to actually code or write or sketch on it.
With zero video editing experience, I recently shot and edited a 7 minute video of myself playing guitar, entirely on my iPhone. I was pretty surprised how well it worked. Yeah there were some UI warts (editing text, like you say...), and I wouldn't want to work that way for any serious work, but it really did lower the barrier for a complete noob in a way that finding/buying some PC video editing suite couldn't.
You say you wouldn't want to use this simplified phone-based video editing tools for serious work, but there is an entire industry's worth of livelihoods being made on TikTok and Instagram using these very editing tools. Not saying this to knock down your point or anything, just highlighting the fact that these tools have actually become good enough (sure, no one is editing feature-length Hollywood movies using them) to be qualified as "serious work".
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#356About five years ago when the mobile revolution ended.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I can’t help feeling we over rely on them/take stuff like this too seriously. Douglas Adams wrote comedy books so I think we're safe.
But the quote is being used as an explanation and not as a joke.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#358No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#359For me it was when tech no longer served me and my interests. Anything tech does for me these days is usually just a means to get me to use it so that someone else can collect data, push ads, or control me. There's rarely a product or service that doesn't have some hidden cost or give someone else power over you. Cars have internet, but track your location, can listen in on your conversations, and optional features o…
Does anyone remember what it was like growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? Life was miserable before most of us had Internet access. I think there's simply no comparison. Also does anyone remember what it was like back then trying to sell software? I remember back in 2003 whenever I wrote a piece of software, for every guy who paid me $20 via paypal for it, there'd…
> growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads?
At the same time, thanks to these ads, I remember spending a lot less time in front of screens compared to current kids/teens.
Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does anyone remember what it was like growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? Life was miserable before most of us had Internet access. I think there's simply no comparison. Also does anyone remember what it was like back then trying to sell software? I remember back in 2003 whenever I wrote a piece of software, for every guy who paid me $20 via paypal for it, there'd…
> The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades. It's hard to agree with that statement knowing that Facebook allowed genocidal rage to fester on its platform, ultimately facilitating the Rohingya genocide[0]. The tech industry may be the most force for good in your life today, but when you take a step back to read about hardware manufacturing in China, state/privately-spon…
While I would love to work for Meta due to engineering challenges & caliber of their engineers but sometimes I wonder if I would be able to sleep at night.
Makes me wonder if those engineers who worked for Nazis through IBM felt any remorse later, or if they were able to compartmentalize their work from their personal lives.