i’ve seen a movement recently. we’ve been more and more nostalgic here, talking about software, hardware, and things in general from the past. why so?
Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
1–10 of 157 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#2Nostalgia. It is hard to follow all of the new trends. I feel like I'm becoming obsolete. And now with all of the AI hype, who knows what tomorrow brings.
With past, you know what it was, you have a romanticized image about it. At least I do.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#3Many topics that people care(d) about are getting more sophisticated and complicated, yet also blander and more homogenized.
So it's much more fun to talk about the different ways, say, 1980s game consoles handled graphics – each had unique chips and unique ideas, but all simple enough to be explained in a single blog post – than it is to talk about how all consoles today use the same hardware and the same software stack to achieve the same mind-bogglingly complicated results that require years of study to understand.
Same with OSes, cars, cameras, you name it.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#4Its likely a combination of many factors.
i) The demographics of the user base. Maybe "Young Hacker News" happens inside discord or whatever.
ii) The fact that the past keeps growing. The body of interesting developments keeps growing and while some stuff is obsolete / nostalgic, other stuff is totally not. In fact revisiting the mindset and vision of past decades is many times very inspiring and educational.
iii) The fact that the present is shrill, exhaustively hyped, manipulated and in a sense damaged. Tech is no longer a force for good and we long for the time when this illusion was available.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#5as we age, humans reflect more upon the past, probably because doing so helped the tribe to survive... the memories of the older members of the tribe provided information that was important to survival of the tribe, such as hey remember that water hole that we came across 40 years ago etc... thus humans developed adaptively a tendency to reflect upon the past as they age
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#6Right now, we are in a period of upheaval. Everyone knows that everything is about to change, but we don't know exactly how.
Transformers are going to create huge shifts in how businesses work on a fundamental level. The stable diffusion and LLMs could collectively eliminate huge numbers of jobs.
The past doesn't have the same worries, and this tech revolution is not looking good for many.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#7Nostalgia. It is hard to follow all of the new trends. I feel like I'm becoming obsolete. And now with all of the AI hype, who knows what tomorrow brings. With past, you know what it was, you have a romanticized image about it. At least I do.
The past holds the roots of the future. I don't think we can shape a rational future without understanding the decisions of the past. Everyone doesn't need to understand the past but some do. It is not nostalgia for me. I study technical developments I didn't live though.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#8Because last 10 or so years we've seen nothing but stagnation compared to previous decades.
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#9You know how flared jeans are back in fashion, for the fourth time? Well .. that's AI, and colourspace, and writing your own LISP.
If you don't want HN to do old stories, stop wearing flares!
Re: Ask HN: Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?
#10[deleted]