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The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

muddy.jprs.me

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Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#281

Post by frm88 »

summa_tech wrote: post #33
functionmouse wrote: post #2

I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having

I think the issue is that while you can (and perhaps should ) do at least one such thing, it's going to be a pretty lonely pursuit, unless you have a pre-existing group of people to connect over this. The Internet used to be really good at random, unscripted collaboration. But the winner-takes-all nature of modern social media means that if you do not optimize your presentation for maximum engagement, you will not ev…

The Internet used to be really good at random, unscripted collaboration.

It sometimes still is, albeit only on niche sites like tumblr, which created Goncharov (1973) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goncharov_(meme)

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#282

Post by jjav »

functionmouse wrote: post #2

I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having

Encourage yourself and all your similar-minded people to keep the fun going!

Yes, 99.99(however many 9s)% of the internet is walled-garden advertising garbage.

But, you can exist in the remaining space and bring your friends along!

I run my website and my blog like I've always done (since 1994), I run mailing lists for a few topics (some date back to 1991) and subscribe to many others. Zero corporate involvement, no ads, no monopolist in control. Just peer to peer real people. I run my email server so I can communicate without depending on the monopolists. There are still hobby forums for specialty topics, or start your own! I even still read Usenet weekly. And so on...

The fun parts of the Internet used to be all of it, now it is a niche, but it's still there for you. Keep it alive!

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#283

Post by lesostep »

bonesss wrote: post #92
joenot443 wrote: post #21

I think we just got older. People are still having a blast online, but they’re mostly kids or teenagers. Garrys Mod got replaced by Roblox, forums got replaced by Discord, blogs got replaced by vlogs. There’s still lots of fun and community still to be found online, people wouldn’t spend so much time on it if there wasn’t.

Teenagers having a blast on TikTok to the detriment of their academics isn’t the same as literate teenagers having a blast on mIRC. Pedagogically, the kinds of kids who were online “then” were broadly not at risk and arguably learning computing skills. At risk youth today are on porn sites before their first kiss, being radicalized on TikTok, and developing ADHD-adjacent disordered behaviour to their absolute detrime…

>> Teenagers having a blast on TikTok to the detriment of their academics isn’t the same as literate teenagers having a blast on mIRC.

Blast on mIRC isn't comparable to TikTok. It's direct comparison would be a discord or tg chat.

There are a lot of discord chats full with teens that spend their time talking about modifying software. It mostly a whimsical software like small games or desktop pets, not something of interest to most adults.

I, uh, might be biased, but I think not a lot of teens were at the mIRC chats at the time. Mostly teens bought magazines, watched TV and rented porn.

It seems to me like you are comparing outliers then to a baseline now. Baseline now is pretty good, drug addiction down, teen preggy down, less crime, etc

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#284

Post by sellmesoap »

brightball wrote: post #141
jonhohle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the fun things “on the internet” are mostly still possible, it’s just the bulk of things we do now are not fun and main companies aren’t quirky risk takers but the oil/train/steel barons of our day. In the past few years I’ve done serveral of the things on your list in earnest and they are all easier to do today (specifically technical things) than they were 25 years ago (except maybe writing with a pen). Edit t…

We need to bring back BBS's over short range radio transmitters. The early dialup and BBS world was magic and it pulls everything completely off of the standard channels.

Reticulum/Rnode is one option, but then mesh-core-tastic, signal, session, simplex, briar, whatschat, insta-don't sell a gram (no more e2ee) etc. etc. Let me know when the cool kids figure it out, you can reach me on my fossil instance over i2p :D

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#285

Post by Xymist »

moffkalast wrote: post #195
joe_mamba wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do one thing you don't particularly enjoy too much for 8h/day as your job to earn money, then you do your hobby you can afford and enjoy for Rinse and repeat.

And of course the other chores: cooking, shopping, cleaning, etc. come out of the part you don't particularly enjoy right? Right?

Yes, ish. Shopping is delivered, cooking is a hobby (or takeaway), cleaning services for a couple of hours a week is often practical even if actually having a full time housekeeper isn't. Convert money from the unenjoyable part into time in the enjoyable part.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#286

Post by joe_mamba »

moffkalast wrote: post #280
joe_mamba wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean part time work, which already exists?

No I mean that the 19th century 8-8-8 rule is nonsense today, when people's leisure time is being eaten up by their commute and other responsibilities, so it ends up being more like 7 hours sleep, 2 hours hobbies, 15 hours work.

>No I mean that the 19th century 8-8-8 rule is nonsense today

You think 19th century workers had time for 8h of hobbies per day? Let me have what you've been smoking because that's some good stuff.

>when people's leisure time is being eaten up by their commute and other responsibilities

You think 19th century people had no/less responsibilities?

How out of touch do you have to be to see yourself as more oppressed than 19th century workers, when you have abundant food in the supermarkets you don't have to farm, door to door food delivery, online solvable bureaucracy, cars, planes, ambulances and emergency rooms with MRIs, CT scanners and cures for most diseases, OSHA, social security, longest life expectancy ever in the history of mankind, residential heating and cooling at your fingertips, etc. stuff even kings in the 19th century didn't have, a society where you can live a life where you never have to leave your house if you don't want to, yet somehow you think workers had a more leisurely life back then. WHAT?!

> 15 hours work.

Put yourself in the position of an employer trying to start/run a business today. Are your customers gonna pay you extra so you can pay your workers for their private chores and commute?

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#287

Post by joe_mamba »

dgellow wrote: post #132
joe_mamba wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says who? Please define your definition of the word "needs" here in this context. With this logic, nobody also "needs" to buy a Ford F-250 Super Duty, a MacBook Pro M5, an RTX 5090, a recreational boat, drink Starbucks daily, etc if your definition of "needs" is just limited to day survival meaning just providing food and shelter but nothing more, and yet people buy them anyway, because it's entertainment, not becaus…

What a stretch to go from cars and luxury laptop to daily survival

Are you able to read and parse entire sentences and paragraphs in order to grasp the point of a comment, or do you form your opinion from a couple of random words you pick from a paragraph.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#289

Post by dgellow »

joe_mamba wrote: post #287
dgellow wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a stretch to go from cars and luxury laptop to daily survival

Are you able to read and parse entire sentences and paragraphs in order to grasp the point of a comment, or do you form your opinion from a couple of random words you pick from a paragraph.

Please do not rely on personal attacks on HN

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#290

Post by chrisallick »

pesus wrote: post #176
chrisallick wrote: post #75

disagree... get claude code and start writing your own apps. its incredibly liberating. im back in the early 00s actually enjoying my computer again not just using it as a terminal to bullshit corp websites. when you start making your own stuff, you end up on the best parts of the internet discussing with people who you miss from when you enjoyed the web.

Getting Claude Code is the opposite of writing your own apps.

i think its more nuanced than "is" or "isn't." an architect does't pour the concrete. the gap between me or claude comes down to the architectural decisions. take a large functional spec in jira for example, any developer can pick up a ticket, but they aren't steering the product. i have zero issue with claude or anyone doing mundane dev tasks to pull off a product im trying to make. but i guess if you want to say you typed every byte, thats a personal preference. i guess i agree if your one shot prompting software, sure, you're still making but not really coding. i see claude as my agentic pair programmer not "the" developer and most of my software is archicted by me and written the way i would. one thing i like to do is point it at my code bases so it can pick up on my stylistic choices.
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