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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?

#211

Post by carabiner »

arprocter wrote: post #137
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…

Another automotive 'advancement' is headlight bulbs you can't replace yourself - what used to take a few minutes now requires a trip to the dealer, so they can presumably dismantle the front end Unlikely both would blow, but I'm a little surprised more fuss hasn't been made about it from a safety standpoint; considering being able to see where you're going tends to be important - I believe in France you can get a tic…

This is why I love my Tacoma. Here's the 3-minute tutorial on replacing the headlight bulbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvbZc8shIvQ

Then again, everything else about it is dated, especially the engine.

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

#212

Post by sneak »

rswskg wrote: post #198
sneak wrote: post #24

Everything requires a telephone number now, and many (due to spam/abuse/whatever) don't accept VoIP/disposable numbers, so it's basically like a universal tracking cookie. I have like six phones to keep my various identity facets separate. It's gross and annoying, and I worry about everyone else who just has one number and uses it for everything and links their accounts everywhere together; most people in the world a…

Plus anyone with more than one phone is treated like a pervert/cheat and/or drug dealer.

No, everyone makes the drug dealer joke, but the presumption/stereotype of someone carrying around 3+ iPhones of recent generation (~$1k each) and dressed well is usually not "street criminal", in my personal experience.

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

#213

Post by 4ggr0 »

Ottolay wrote: post #10
hwers wrote: post #7

It's not a new point but for sure tech has ruined my attention span. I was once lucky enough to get away from major needs to use tech for a few months (which I spent reading) and it really showed me how much these things affect the brain and how unfortunate it is that there seems to be near no other option than to use it because of the career arms race that you need to participate in in order not to die.

I wonder sometimes if I have just gotten more ADD in my middle age or if it is a general trend many struggle with today.

These discussions always bother me a bit because I was diagnosed with ADD last year. Now every time I read such discussion I wonder if I was misdiagnosed, if I'm an impostor etc.

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

#214

Post by cheese_van »

handrous wrote: post #111
cheese_van wrote: post #82

I might include diplomacy, statecraft and foreign policy. Before communications were instant, ambassadors were provided a long view of state relationships and foreign policy goals. During his tenure then, the ambassador was guided by these long term visions of how to fulfill policy. Now, thanks to instant messaging, an ambassador and embassy must (or can) immediately adjust daily to their home office's reaction to ev…

Off-topic, but as a former serious politics nerd (did most of an IR undergrad degree, way back, in fact) who's now a less-serious politics nerd and quite a bit older, what are some entry points to this world for someone with a career in tech? It'd be kinda nice to work on something that's in an area I have any actual interest in, for once.

Only if you think being dropped off on the corner of Walk and Don't Walk in a foreign country is boatloads of fun, as I do, employment in the Foreign Service of the US State Department. Barriers to getting in are rather high, however, and salaries, initially, are laughable, but you're not paying rent or utilities when you are overseas.

There is a pol/econ/mgmt track and a technical support track (where barriers are a bit lower) and is the route I took.

State has "diplomats in residence" at major universities. They'll be happy to chat even if you aren't a student.

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

#215

Post by aigo »

amelius wrote: post #153
aigo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too, ad blockers and all my media on Plex, etc. For me it's only when I watch live sport that I see adverts now, which I quite like, it's like a little window into what most other British people are seeing when they watch TV all week.

How do you navigate around sites that insist on you removing the ad blocker?

How many of those are there? I've never encountered more than maybe one or two. Even illegal premier league streaming sites don't mind adblockers.

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

#216

Post by [deleted] »

cletus wrote: post #81

Video games. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. There's simply too much money nowadays in micro-transactions, in-app purchases, loot boxes, pay-to-win and in-game advertising that almost everything is "free" to play and it's literally horrible. what we have now is mostly copy-pasted franchise titles (with a year after their name) that are just another optimized hellhole of extracting money from you a small…

[deleted]

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

#217

Post by jacquesm »

grech wrote: post #56
jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My life is as close to advertising free as possible. The only thing that I can't really do much about is advertising signs by the roadside, but other than that it isn't a problem.

Curious to know, how did you manage to get to an advertising free life?

No TV, big sticker saying 'no print advertising' on my mailbox, adblocked and jsblocked to the hilt on all computers in the house (I see that as a sanity and a security bonus as well), no physical newspaper. It's as good as clean now, every now and then something slips through and then my first response usually is 'surely people can't be that stupid'.

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

#218

Post by jazzyjackson »

pototo666 wrote: post #46

My sleep. I used to use smart phone before I lie on bed before bedtime. I know that I shouldn't use them. But the dopamine generated by digital devices and internet is too cheap. When I am unhappy or under pressure, I tend to use my smart phone. And I am always unhappy or under pressure recently. Then I use smart phone before sleep. Then I fall asleep very late. This creates some vicious circle. The worse my sleep is…

only two industries where customers are known as “users”…

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

#220

Post by rco8786 »

bbarn wrote: post #136

Cars. I appreciate all of the advances in emissions reduction, safety, etc., but when I was a kid I learned the basics of working on nearly any car on the market, and now even with an OBD scanner most of them are still near unfixable without visiting a dealership. Cars are literally immobilized by things like faulty sensors when if ignored, the car would legitimately still work just fine. That's just the purely funct…

> Cars are literally immobilized by things like faulty sensors when if ignored, the car would legitimately still work just fine.

Any concrete examples of this?

FWIW, cars are orders of magnitude more reliable than they were 40, 50+ years ago even though those were easier to work on.

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