Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 498 posts

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

#271

Post by lotsofpulp »

recursive wrote: post #255

Light switches. I like the old kind. There's a position for off and and a position for on. Maybe a slider for a dimmer. But now in my bedroom, the brightness is adjusted by holding down a single button. The intensity follows a slow triangle wave. You release the button at the desired time. That means if you just want the dimmest possible setting, you have to stand there for ~10 seconds and be subjected to the highest…

Why do you tolerate that? "Old kind" light switches are plentiful, as are sliding dimmer, probably multiple kinds at local hardware stores and certainly online. Takes 10 minutes and a screwdriver and maybe a couple wire nuts to replace.

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

#272

Post by bufordtwain »

handrous wrote: post #121
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 wan…

This is the one I ended up getting when my previous microwave broke. It has one dial to set the time and no spinny plate. Pull to open. Happy with it so far but we'll see how long it lasts... https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZTVIPZ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt...

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

#273

Post by MrZander »

rg111 wrote: post #83

Learning. From my childhood, I have always loved to learn new stuff- all kinds of interesting stuff. Before, when I became interested in something, I looked it up on the net, read books, and asked people about resources. But with "feed"s, everything went downhill very quickly. When more and more resources became available, I struggled to keep up with them. There were not only too many resources I came to know about o…

If I can suggest a book: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

I had a lot of the same feelings you describe here. Reading this and actually making tangible changes to my habits helped me rediscover my love of learning. Ultimately, the solution for me was to force myself to be bored. I set artificial limits for myself when consuming content online (for instance, I use the procrastination features here on HN and I deleted all "feed" apps on my phone, like Reddit).

I found that once I was bored, my free time became so much more enjoyable and it was easier to deliberately work on something.

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

#275

Post by lettergram »

Socializing. This pandemic would have ended months ago if people weren’t on social media. The algorithms cater to fear and the fact people stay online gives them the impression of socializing.

Generally, I think it’s broken the sense of localized community; while making it more global. This has upsides and downsides, but I’d like to see a more localized system in place.

Regarding the comment about living off the grid, I am well on my way. Should have my families setup by late 2022.

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

#276

Post by notreallyserio »

cwkoss wrote: post #222
codazoda wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just last night I was thinking about how much of my life is wasted watching advertising on TV. 15 minutes is worth more than a few dollars to me. I was watching a movie on the Roku Channel. Because the channel is free, it's got commercials. The more I watched, the longer the commercials got. At some point I gave up and turned it off. The movie is 132 minutes long and there are 10 stops for commercials. The last comme…

We need to start a collective action where audiences punish advertisers. How can we lower the ROI on advertising as a society? Harass customer service lines with complaints about the advertisements? Organize focused boycotts of worst offenders? Form a journalistic non-profit that investigates unethical and illegal business practices, ordering targets by ad spend? Maybe we should mock friends and acquaintances that pu…

I guess contacting sales as a merchant with questions about why products aren't meeting expectations set by commercials could help, but it'd have to be a lot of people calling to make a dent. I doubt CS calls will amount to anything, they'll just add more computer voice layers.

Maybe sending activist investors to company meetings would get headlines, but I dunno if anything substantive would come of it.

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

#277

Post by distribot »

ryeights wrote: post #261
throwawayboise wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signs are ugly, but I don't think it's right to tell people they can't have a sign on their property. Property rights and freedom of speech are worth tolerating a bit of eyesore.

Disagree. We have regulations for noise levels emitting from people’s private property, for example, for the sake of public interest.

A person shouldn't be able to have signage above their business to indicate what it is, the phone number, etc? Not billboards, but literally a sign that says "Johnny's Bakery"

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

#278

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

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…

> CPUs [...]

you can pry my 16 core Threadripper and its 64GB of RAM from my cold dead hand.

Some of us use computers for things where more CPU cycles per second and more RAM are always good things.

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

#279

Post by pbourke »

barbazoo wrote: post #170
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet you'll love these before-and-after photos of Sao Paolo after their outdoor advertising ban: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret... Anti-advertising was one of the pet causes of Generation X, back before more pressing things like "the war on terror" and a financial collapse and health care crisis took the stage. And those are bigger deals, but man, advertising is just awful too.

I love that! Here where I live in Canada, billboards aren't allowed except on indigenous land. While I totally respect it, it's a horrible eyesore.

Kelowna?

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

#280

Post by lotsofpulp »

sneak wrote: post #212
rswskg wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why would anyone want to carry around 3+ iPhones?

Anyone rich with 3+ iPhones would rather have an assistant carry the 2 other phones.

Post reply on HN