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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?

#121

Post by handrous »

lovetocode wrote: post #17

Unnecessary tech in kitchen appliances. Ovens, dishwashers and washer/dryers. I spend most of my time battling the user interface or dealing with obscure bugs.

My favorite microwave oven is one my Grandma owned for decades, probably purchased in the 70s or early 80s. Two dials. No buttons. Pull to open the door, not even a button for that. Didn't even have the spinny-plate thing (did OK regardless, and I find I have to manually move stuff around halfway through even with the spinny plate, so it's kinda useless).

Put power dial where you want it. Put timer dial where you want it. Timer starts ticking down and the microwave turns on. Loud ding (from a physical bell somewhere inside it, not a speaker) when it's done. That's the entire thing. No buttons, no clock (god, why do you need a clock on your microwave?!) none of that shit.

Heavy, good-feeling dials that you could feel physically operating something underneath, from the clunks of the power dial to the subtle scrape of the timer dial. Great feel on the door handle. All-around solid. Nothing to learn. Just use it.

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

#122

Post by Nextgrid »

ryandrake wrote: post #55
scrooched_moose wrote: post #13

In the last few years I feel like we've reached "notification hell". Technology used to be a tool that was used when needed, now it constantly demands our attention. I feel like something is always beeping at me across countless services and just stresses me out. Windows beeps every time I click anything now, every app wants to spam notifications every our, Jira, countless chat apps, email, even the credit card machi…

Do-Not-Disturb mode on all your devices, 24/7. It stops all notifications, messages, dinging, buzzing, phone calls, everything. Huge, instant, and permanent quality of life improvement. I've been doing it for a few years, now, and I could never go back to life with my phone dinging and lighting up like Reno ever few minutes. A lot of people think they can't do it (OMG what if I miss that one important call out of tho…

DND and similar only delay the problem - the notifications still pile up in the background.

Instead, treat the problem at the source by preventing these notifications from originating or reaching you in the first place. Don't sign up for accounts unless absolutely necessary, don't install apps if possible and if you do then deny notification permissions, and for emails that are technically necessary but don't require your attention set up some email rules to automatically archive them.

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

#123

Post by yardshop »

handrous wrote: post #99

Two phone-related ones: 1) Phone calls sounded better when they were analog. Even today, after some improvements, this is still true. 2) Long distance charges turned out to be well fucking worth it for keeping phone spam from being a thing. This "improvement" has been strongly net-harmful.

The thing I miss the most is high-quality full-duplex audio over copper cables! No lag, no cutting each other off, just warm analog signal!

I also miss wiring up phone lines in the basements of friends' houses!

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

#124

Post by jtwaleson »

Spending way too many resources and making it seem fine. Driving 100s of km every week like it's normal. Flying 10x per year. Turning the heat up in winter while wearing a t-shirt. This is an age of extreme luxury and we don't realize it.

That and addiction to my smartphone. I hardly read books anymore, while that has always been one of the great pleasures in my life

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

#126

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

ok_dad wrote: 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 good enough; it lies to you, it lies to you about lying to you, and it makes you think this is normal. And that's all when it isn't trying to outright scam you.

> Social media.

Mostly bad because of advertising.

> Most products today are less durable and are generally worse than "yesterday", in my opinion.

A bit more of a stretch, but since advertisements lie and tell you the product costs less and is 'just as good', it leads to a race to the bottom.

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

#127

Post by stared »

ryandrake wrote: post #55
scrooched_moose wrote: post #13

In the last few years I feel like we've reached "notification hell". Technology used to be a tool that was used when needed, now it constantly demands our attention. I feel like something is always beeping at me across countless services and just stresses me out. Windows beeps every time I click anything now, every app wants to spam notifications every our, Jira, countless chat apps, email, even the credit card machi…

Do-Not-Disturb mode on all your devices, 24/7. It stops all notifications, messages, dinging, buzzing, phone calls, everything. Huge, instant, and permanent quality of life improvement. I've been doing it for a few years, now, and I could never go back to life with my phone dinging and lighting up like Reno ever few minutes. A lot of people think they can't do it (OMG what if I miss that one important call out of tho…

I have it that way (especially Messenger, Slack). Otherwise, I would go crazy (literally, I get meltdowns from sensory overload).

The problem is that people EXPECT an answer soon-ish. Otherwise, they assume the lack of goodwill. Furthermore, nowadays less and fewer people use longer emails.

In a few workplaces, I committed to answering emails. I clarified that I might not read Slack unless for a pre-arranged meeting. Each time they considered it bizarre yet accepted (since it was a hard requirement from my side).

I hope to set a path for other neurodiverse people who lack such chutzpah.

And, in the company I run, Basecamp is the primary communicator to create an email-like asynchronous communication culture.

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

#129

Post by skim_milk »

jacquesm wrote: post #29

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…

I don't think we can have 'too much' CPU or RAM. The stuff I'm working on as a single software consultant, give me a budget of 100k and I can put out software using .Net Core and Angular that you would have needed a 10 million dollar budget in the 90's to make due to code being tied up around the restrictions of hardware. The productivity improvements from fast CPUs and large amounts of RAM are enormous and enables small businesses to use or make custom, niche, high-quality tech for next to nothing, just get someone who knows HTML and javascript well enough. It really lubricates society making us all less rigid and dependent on huge corporations and their access to capital and investment to produce social change.
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