TV.
I hate the smart-TV workflow, its a terrible user experience: Turn the TV on… wait for the smart-TV OS to load… land on an app menu… navigate around and choose an app… wait for the app to load… select a profile… wait for the list of shows to load… scroll almost endlessly through shows… choose a show, finally… wait for the video to load…
I miss when you turned the TV on and it was just instantly playing whatever channel you last had on, with one single interaction. I miss not having to make the conscious choice of what to watch and feel overwhelmed by so many options. I miss TV programs being a common experience, like an event, that everyone would be talking about together the next day, instead of everyone watching their own thing on their own schedule.
It was truly exciting to look forward to a weekly show on TV.
Except when you couldn’t know in advance when your show skipped a week and they had to play some crappy rerun of a completely different show.
On the plus side people with jobs other than 9-5 can now be included in the experience.
If you haven’t used free Over-the-air TV these days you might be surprised that most cities have a few dozen channels of live TV right now. If your in a large metro area get the simplest of cheapest TV antennas, plug it into your TV, and do a channel scan. You’ll be surprised how many channels there are now.
If you’re in suburbs or rural, you’ll still likely have quite a few but may need a more substantial antenna.
I do have an antenna and get some decent channels with it
You can still do that by paying for cable.
You’re not wrong, although I think I’d still have to wait for the smart-TV OS to load and navigate the menu to select the Cable input.
I prefer how Nazis were dealt with in the past
Dating. It’s hard to manufacture that initial spark in an app.
It’s like fishing. You throw a bunch of hooks in the water, see what happens. I did very well with online dating, until I found my forever girl.
Software engineering.
Back in my day(™), it was an engineering role, where science reigned. Anyone even attempting “vibe coding” would’ve been rightfully laughed out of the room.
It’s a task that should take concerted effort, with specific goals and performance metrics in mind. Just getting the task done wasn’t and shouldn’t be good enough.
I think the issue is that back then, you only did important things with software. Now there is so much code doing the same simple things. Like how many ways does a person need to input thier birthday… and every tool we use… if it is good it gets more and more expensive, and more and more cluttered as they try to expand thier market. So now a new cheaper tool that does the same thing gets written. I would bet 90 some % of code is copies of other code with scientifically meaningless difference. But someone has to write it all…
Uh oh. The ice carvers are complaining about the evils of refrigeration again…
Uh oh, the bad faith AI bros are conflating luddites with anyone that disagrees with them again…
Says the Luddite without an argument…
Because I’m not arguing, genius, because a group of people that categorically reject all dissent as an appeal to nature fallacy is a group not worth engaging.
Sounds like a self-defeating argument. So glad I could stand by while you beat on that straw man for a while. Feeling better after that li’l display, champ?
Again, not an argument. You sure seem to be projecting about strawmen.
Sure, kiddo. Whatever gives you that dopamine hit for being yet-another random internet douchecanoe.
“Hurr hurr… I’m right and I’ve decided you’re wrong because reasons. I’m not going to engage with anyone because everyone rejects my assertions that I’m right and everyone else is wrong.”
Uh huh. Real nuanced perspective you got there.
No this is LITERALLY the same argument made hundreds/thousands of years ago against writing and books. Its the same argument the amish use. It IS the luddit pinnicle argument.
That’s right, the anti AI people are making literally the same arguments about why writing is bad. I am so smart.
You do not understand what quality code is if you think the current or previous generations produce anything but shit when it’s not a 1-1 copy of someone’s project it digested.
You do not realize how many businesses operate every single day and make plenty of money on suboptimal code.
Industrial scale everything does not care, so long as the job gets done and the invoice is paid.
Just like with every other profession made obsolete by technology, the 80% case won’t need your bespoke, hand-crafted, artisanal assembly. There will still be minority cases who will pay a premium for it. And plenty of people will still program as a hobby or for their local community. But industrial scale software will be written by bots.
Because the world runs on good enough. No matter how many elitist neckbeards get butthurt in the process.
I want back my Dumb TVs!! I dont want everything to be connected!
I want a phone where I am reach the top and the bottom of the screen without shifting my grip. Also being able to comfortably store in a pocket would be nice
Yes! Make smaller phones! Why do they all have to be getting bigger and bigger?
I think we all know the answer to that one.
And less weight and no camera cluster sticking out making the phone not lay flat when put down would be nice
i’m actually this close to just going back to a dumb phone.
Socializing.
No social media to distract people. Nobody staring a phones. Nobody recording themselves for streaming.
You memorized phone numbers or wrote them down. You called or got called to meet up at some place and everyone went from there.
True
I don’t like electric can openers. I strongly prefer to just use a manual one. I just see an appliance that has but one use and requires electricity to be tremendous waste.
I love my P-38 can opener. It was made 80 years ago and it’s still opening cans like tin foil.
Came here to rep the P38. What a boss of a can opener.
Wow I have never had an electric can opener, are they common in home kitchens?
I didn’t even know electric can openers were a thing
Never seen back to the future? One in the opening scene.
Making things electric was the “adding AI” of 20 years ago. Make something that works more complex and difficult to use, but the future!
More like 40 years!
That said, I loved my electric opener from 92’.
There was a knack to it, but I could be done opening a can before someone even started with a manual opener.
I like leaving the last 2 or so cm of lid attached so the can and lid stay together. Can’t do that automatically (well, I could, but that juice isn’t worth the squeeze).
Using Windows - before onedrive, online integration, new control panel, telemetry. Using the internet - before tracking, bloated sites, paywalls, cookie boxes and ai garbage. Using my car - before telemetry, beep, driver “aid” systems.
Long live Clippy!
This is kind of niche, but I mix concerts for a living and newer consoles and shows are all scene based, every song has a scene, and most of the time every verse and chorus in the song has a sub scene. It is a breath of fresh air to be able to mix with no scenes and have to rely on pure skill and intuition. Those shows tend to have a better feel and be more energetic, albeit less polished. They are also more fun, and a little bit more stressful.
It is 1000 times more enjoyable to actually mix a concert than just click to the next scene.
Cool. I had no idea this was a thing.
I miss physically owning software, movies, and music, not having to pay a subscription for car features like heated seats or more horsepower. I miss getting a complete game that was usually mostly glitch free on day one you got it on CD/DVD.
Anything to do with the internet. I’d go back to 2010 in a heartbeat.
We were well into the internet in 2010…
Hell, we were well into the internet in 2000
Yeah, I was there for pre-2000 internet. It was cool back then too. I just remember 2010 as the last era where the internet still felt fun. That’s all gone now.
Programming. Telling a machine “build x feature” is nervewracking because I do not know what it’s doing and more importantly boring because it takes all the joy out of writing code. Even the LLM completions I do not use because I have seen what it has done to my coworkers’ brains. I will think about the problem. I will write the code. I will know what it does. It will be of me, not of some averaging machine.
May the LLM era end in darkness and the gnashing of teeth amen.
You sound like a C developer complaining about interpreted languages lol
Amen
Photography. Film was so advanced, having a layer for each major colour, every film stock has a different feeling. The only downside was cost, but you only took a picture when you were sure it is a good picture. Now we have tons of digital garbage because we take 100 pictures at once.
The old family picture books had so much value, now I can’t remember if I ever even looked at any past photos I took with my phone, it’s all just digital waste now
I feel the opposite. Film sucked so bad. I love pointing my phone at things and shooting a hundred shots and finding something good there or not finding anything and continueing with my day. Old photography was a pointless torture.
Film is crazy advanced. One of those “how did humanity figure this out?” kind of things. Smarter Every Day YouTube channel did a thorough tour of Kodak and it’s pretty fascinating all that goes into it.
The deliberate act of shooting that the financial and time cost definitely makes better photos. You can do that with digital as well but it takes more discipline. Far easier to shoot a dozen and hope one works than to think and come up with the right one from the start.
Both have their place I think. Any time I shoot a race, wedding, or a once in a life trip I’m so glad it’s digital! Being able to do a 10 shot burst and nail the facial expression is pretty awesome. Then slowing down and going on a local hike and setting up my 4x5 to take one shot, or a photo walk around town with an old SLR is a blast too.
Maybe I just like photography?
I love a manual shift car, feels so much better to drive than automatic. Make bread from just flour, water, and salt, sourdough is an older method than dry yeast but it works better for me.
I also love radio, literal airwaves, works when the wifi goes down, battery radios can work during emergencies but also I just love the tech it is so old and so cool. And getting music curated by humans (we have a local community station) is great.
Community radio is so good. I just discovered it earlier this year but it is truly a breath of fresh air from the repetitive top charts being played on most public radio.
