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

As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 185 posts

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#131

Post by nntwozz »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #100

There isn't a whole lot of new technology around. Apart from LLMs, everything else is a remix/retread/clone/speed bump with a few tweaks. iOS is 16 years old. Android is a year younger. AWS is a year older. The original Oculus Rift is from 2016. Facebook dates from 2004. Twitter from 2006. Amazon has been around for 30 years. (And looks it.) Starlink is a consumerised reinvention of Iridium (1997). Docker - 2013. Git…

You forgot electric mountain bikes, eMTB's.

Maybe not a big thing for everyone, but for the nature-loving nerds at the intersection of computers and mechanics this has personally been the most exciting hobby for the last 5 years.

The whole MTB industry is exploding with innovation, just recently Pinion released a motor with integrated gearbox getting rid of the 100-year old derailleur.

https://youtu.be/YXmMV1LQu-s?si=xfHIfBTPeYfGar5X

https://youtu.be/H3KsWIz4LDo?si=j6gMUylkr12GetPN

Better battery tech and sleeker integration/improved weight is creating some truly amazing new mountain bikes and the experience of riding one is quite novel compared to anything in the past.

For the uninitiated, it's not like riding a motorbike. These bikes are pedelecs meaning you only get extra assistance when pedaling (there is no throttle).

The best analogy is the feeling of being a bionic man with extreme strength and stamina. The first time riding up a steep hill brought the same sensation as riding a bike for the first time as a kid.

Pure bliss, I couldn't stop smiling.

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#132

Post by spacemadness »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #100

There isn't a whole lot of new technology around. Apart from LLMs, everything else is a remix/retread/clone/speed bump with a few tweaks. iOS is 16 years old. Android is a year younger. AWS is a year older. The original Oculus Rift is from 2016. Facebook dates from 2004. Twitter from 2006. Amazon has been around for 30 years. (And looks it.) Starlink is a consumerised reinvention of Iridium (1997). Docker - 2013. Git…

The endless pursuit of profit at any cost, normally by exploiting the ever living hell out of everyone, is causing us all to have a shared existential crisis. Well, some of us are anyway—-there are plenty of folks that think it’s just great as it “aligns with our base nature” or some such nonsense. I hope humanity can figure out a better system after we hit rock bottom “spiritually.” Meanwhile, our media owned by the exploiters will keep pointing our attention at other things to be angry at than what we should be angry at.

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#133

Post by jpgvm »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #66

> I want to build things for people. Not constantly update my tools because other developers are bored. i find myself getting frustrated really quickly. if i run a node command and it gives error, i have urge to throw laptop out of window or smash it. web dev use to be about immediacy in the late 90s to mid 00s. now it feels like untangling wires for hours every day. frustrating and tedious.

I switched to primarily JVM (Kotlin mostly, some Java) a few years ago and this feeling has for the most part gone away. Having actually stable, actually good tooling/compiler/build systems makes a world of difference to mental health.

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#134

Post by [deleted] »

leerob wrote: post #129
randomdata wrote: post #65

I fail to see how one could get excited about Next.js, young or old. It makes so many poor design decisions for the type of tool it presents itself as. It is my understanding that the original intent of the project differed, so I can understand that the design choices may have been sensible in that context, but are a terrible fit for the change in project scope and, indeed, how people are trying to use it today. I'm…

The original intent of Next.js holds true today: https://vercel.com/blog/next

[deleted]

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#135

Post by StackOverlord »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #9

The truth is, producing new stuff follows the law of diminishing returns in every category. After the point where the diminishing returns is really noticeable, new inventions and research actually becomes harmful and pathological. That includes many academic research fields and most technology today. In fact, if you add up all the breakthroughs we've accomplished, most of it is just helping us use resources more effi…

> harmful and pathological

Don't forget "toxic" too !

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#137

Post by raverbashing »

True

And it's especially bad in the js world, where it really seems the inmates are running the asylum

(Oh but blah.js version 87 fixes that weird thing in version 86 which anyone with a modicum of experience could have predicted it would go bad) well then...

At the same time don't be the boring greybeard that can't evolve. Evolution is good, and not everything has to be the "tested and true" technology (that will make you last in the race - this should be your hint that the newer solution can be better)

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#138

Post by diarrhea »

schemescape wrote: post #116
zamalek wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> now it feels like untangling wires for hours every day. At least we've moved past webpack, that was a bundle of wires that couldn't ever be completely untangled.

What came after Webpack?

Enlightenment

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#139

Post by EMM_386 »

dasil003 wrote: post #117
EMM_386 wrote: post #88

> Trying to do this Next 12 -> Next 13 upgrade is not fun Oh, the horror! In all seriousness, I have been at this since the late 90s. 1996 specifically when HTML/JS/CSS all became a thing. Do I want to write another complex dynamic HTML form with validation? Not really, no. I really don't enjoy it. Do I want to upgrade this current Angular application from 16 to 17 that I lead? Yes, I actually do. Because I know that…

Yeah this was my thought as well. If you’re paid to maintain software you have to actually do the work to keep up to date on its dependencies—that’s the job! We’ve seen the alternative play out countless times, GitHub forking Rails 2.3 and maintaining it for years and absorbing more and more tech debt for years until they bit the bullet and upgraded back to mainline Rails. Sure I’m getting old and it sometimes feels…

> Sure I’m getting old and it sometimes feels tiresome that software is a treadmill

Precisely.

Sometimes, I wonder if people are curious why after all these years am I apparently still working? Have I not become a "VP" or a "founder" or, better yet, a "VC"?

To each their own. I'll be ok.

Re: As I get older, I just don't care about new technology

#140

Post by satvikpendem »

spacemadness wrote: post #132
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #100

There isn't a whole lot of new technology around. Apart from LLMs, everything else is a remix/retread/clone/speed bump with a few tweaks. iOS is 16 years old. Android is a year younger. AWS is a year older. The original Oculus Rift is from 2016. Facebook dates from 2004. Twitter from 2006. Amazon has been around for 30 years. (And looks it.) Starlink is a consumerised reinvention of Iridium (1997). Docker - 2013. Git…

The endless pursuit of profit at any cost, normally by exploiting the ever living hell out of everyone, is causing us all to have a shared existential crisis. Well, some of us are anyway—-there are plenty of folks that think it’s just great as it “aligns with our base nature” or some such nonsense. I hope humanity can figure out a better system after we hit rock bottom “spiritually.” Meanwhile, our media owned by the…

What better system would that be?
Post reply on HN