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When I was younger, I thought that being an early adopter for every shiny new tech toy would empower me and give me an edge. I tried to make up for a lack of experience with being among the first to every new trend. Now those shiny new toys just look like shackles to me, and the "progress" of consumer-oriented tech just looks like a hamster wheel. It's a strange feeling, being in tech while also hating so much about it.
11 months ago · 👍 neuropirate, p13, cobradile94, ttocsneb, hyperlinkyourheart
@neuropirate New things that feel like old things are my favorite kind of new things :p · 11 months ago
I think our position makes us uniquely able to see through marketing bullshit. They say "machine learning". People go "Ooh! Computer magic!". Software engineers realize it's just an algorithm like any other. Most of us have taken Linear Algebra and know it's not magic at all. · 11 months ago
Right. It's not the look and feel or the old-ness vs new-ness that matters to me so much as the values and power structures embedded in so much new technology. Planned obsolescence sucks. Having to throw away good, environmentally expensive silicon just because most programmers don't write tight code anymore sucks. Having all the functionality of one's devices locked behind a proprietary, closed source interface sucks. Having no real competition in the browser market anymore because bloated standards lock out anyone without millions of dollars to burn sucks. Etc.
There are some modern projects I like (e.g., Gemini), but they almost all seem counter to the values of mainstream tech culture. · 11 months ago
Isn't it also the case the old tech has a lot of unknowns, too? I mean when I look at retro computing, you certainly know the tech, but then again you don't. A tech toy is usually a means to apply something. I view it as that at least. Known/old tech you can also apply to new things. But I get it's weird · 11 months ago
And gemini presents a paradox as it’s a new thing but feels like an old thing 🙃 · 11 months ago
TBH, I feel this applies to a lot of developer-oriented tech as well, but I'm not really interested in being drawn into that particular discussion at the moment. · 11 months ago