>I assumed the police were telling the truth. I gotta laugh at this. Being someone that's from a working town and being from a working class family, cops weren't to be trusted. Cops lied even back then. Life wasn't better back then. The fact he seems to mock gender fluidity and polyamory really shows how much has changed for the better. People who didn't fit in with the gender constructs then were out of luck. Either…
Why is polyamory good?
Because if multiple consenting adults love each other and want to form amorous relationships between then, that should be ok and accepted since it hurts nobody?
> had conversations with taxi drivers, talked to random people at bars, Returning to these kinds of adhoc social interactions has be instrumental in helping breaking my isolation and depression. Friendly chit chat with a barista, say hello to anyone who isn't obviously avoidant, asking to pet their dog etc. Not wearing headphones has also been an important thing because it means I'm instantly available for interactio…
Curiously, almost everybody on the hiking trail I bike has the telltale white lozenges in their ears now. Pre-Covid it was something like 25%.
So trail talk has been reduced to nearly zero. I call out "On your left!" as I pass, but still folks can be startled as I drift past. And forget saying "Good morning!" and getting a response.
It will take years to undo the changes done by this past year.
smoking on a plane sounds like simultaneously the most wonderful and most terrible thing ever similarly it was amazing to smoke in bars, but it's great to not have smoke filled bars
I mean it does sound crazy to me now. But back then it was just a fact of life that both smokers and non-smokers didn't spend much thought on. I flew before I picked up smoking myself, and it didn't really feel something unusual, precisely because it was common everywhere. There have to be other daily habits now that going to be seen as disgusting in a few decades too. Maybe things like eating non-cloned meat.
Common in restaurants as well. It's downright bizarre to think about now, but I remember as a child, at family restaurants like Friendly's and Howard Johnson's (which itself is an anachronism), being asked by a cheery-faced hostess whether we wanted "smoking or non-smoking".
smoking on a plane sounds like simultaneously the most wonderful and most terrible thing ever similarly it was amazing to smoke in bars, but it's great to not have smoke filled bars
I mean it does sound crazy to me now. But back then it was just a fact of life that both smokers and non-smokers didn't spend much thought on. I flew before I picked up smoking myself, and it didn't really feel something unusual, precisely because it was common everywhere. There have to be other daily habits now that going to be seen as disgusting in a few decades too. Maybe things like eating non-cloned meat.
It was interesting especially juxtaposed on current reality. I hated smoking (ok I hated 2nd hand smoke as a non-smoker). But somehow, it was the right of the individual to smoke; when, where, and how they pleased. It didn't matter that other people in the space shared the air. Compared to present when the world is looking to bend over backwards to avoid putting smoke in someone else's air on a plethora of different topics. Many, that I've never contemplated. Like, for instance, I never thought I could get yelled at for using what I thought to be the correct pronoun while saying "yes sir, thank you". I'd think they'd just recognize my attempt canned politeness and say "you're welcome" and recognize why people think of them as a "sir" during casual brief interactions (because they were wearing men's clothes & had facial hair).
Now I feel old. I remember vividly running around with my first camera, looking for objects worthy of being photographed. The film cost money, so did developing it into pictures. I really had to weigh the pros and cons of taking a particular picture. And in a class of ~25 kids, I was one of three who owned a camera. Not that it was such a luxury item, but most people weren't into that. These days, (nearly) everyone c…
Regarding photos: People our age only have a few childhood pictures, and they are warped by time on analog media. Those pictures of us as a kid look really old because they are naturally filtered. Soon people will wonder WTF old-pic filters are for, and some historian will have to explain why it's blurred and the colors are faded. Also why did people have clothes for each decade? Our kids, by contrast, have had pictu…
Looking back, I wish everyone had taken pictures of everyday life (probably with an Instamatic). Christmas pictures, awards, meh. What I really want are pictures of the halls in high school, street racing, parties with giant bonfires and beer.
You can still live like what's described in this article. Get yourself a dumbphone and a paper atlas, only pay with cash, avoid loyalty cards, read paper books, newspapers, etc Now and then I do that, just to switch off from our hyper-connected world. Switching off is the new peace of mind.
That's pretty much me, except for reading a couple of websites (like this) , online banking, and pirating e-books for my Kindle.
I'll fire up a machine for video or photo editing once in a while or sheet music work, but otherwise they're not much use.
One problem is being too old to care about video games. When Space Invaders came out I couldn't imagine that people would choose that over pinball or foosball. My loss I guess.
A couple of things not mentioned: * Half of the population watching the same episodes of the same programme simultaneously. If you missed an episode, it was gone forever * Inane arguments in pubs about facts that couldn't be instantly googled.
> If you missed an episode, it was gone forever I set VHS recorder just in case.
There was a time when we didn't have VHS to record. I remember that time well.
It was really a bummer to miss something. It was probably going to be years, or at least seasons, until you got to see it again.
IMO the big thing is not being bored. Someone is late for a meeting? Doesn't matter, you've got HN to read. On the back seat for a long drive? Doesn't matter, you can answer emails. Or play a game. The whole psychologically weird phase of "hmm I'm here and waiting, and all I can do is watch paint dry" seems to have vanished. I'm not sure what people prefer more though. Say you're waiting for a date, do you feel best…
> not being bored
People weren't necessarily "bored"-- remember that the boredom one feels when not hyper stimulated is due, at least in part, to adaptation to their peak/typical stimulus.
People probably got sufficient dopamine, from "less exciting" things such as small talk, looking at the clouds, contemplating the meaning of their life while waiting for an interview to begin etc.
You can sell your car, get a horse, and travel around like it is the 19th century. Of course, nothing around you will be like the 19th century. Not that it isn't worth doing for other reasons, but moving your tech backwards doesn't move the world around you backwards.
Cars are better than horses for a lot of reasons. But smartphones are delivering no benefit to mankind. At all. The only compelling reason to use them is social pressure.
> But smartphones are delivering no benefit to mankind. At all. The only compelling reason to use them is social pressure.
Benefit? Probably not. Social Pressure? I'd say it's mostly the same addictive behavior that's built into slot machines.
There's been a lot of high speed evolution that has gone into modern products. Fast food, social media, the perfection of pop music production. The unsuccessful die off.