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Unpopular opinion: pay for the content you want and know that it is what it is, either iTunes, Kindle free time, etc.

by dpeck 8y ago

myWindoonn 8y ago
Another unpopular opinion: Parents should not let their children watch something that they have not themselves watched and approved. Edit: This isn't smugness. Do you think it's also smug to not run untrusted binaries? To not copy-and-paste from Stack Overflow into production? To say "thank you," or "yes, I've got it," when taking a blade from somebody else? To not run with scissors is my opinion, not because of smugness, but because I care about safety.
- skywhopper 8y ago
  Your brilliant insight is addressed in the article. It's fun to feel smug and say "just don't do X, duhhhh", but you are just ignoring the problem. "Just don't let your kids play with matches, duuuhhhh." Brilliant solution! Unfortunately your city is burning down around you.
  - Avamander 8y ago
    What you just said is like saying: ""Brush your teeth" is a bad advice when you already have cavities". "Don't do X" is not ignoring the problem, it's literally the only way to avoid Y negative effect caused by X.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- jstarfish 8y ago
  Kids shows are pretty inane. Sesame Street (and Spongebob, if you can stand it) at least throw bones to the adult audience every now and then, but there's nothing in an episode of PJ Masks to keep me engaged. That said, parents that unleash their kids on YouTube make about as much sense as encouraging them to go play in a dumpster. Its all fun and games until the obscenity surfaces and the feedback loop begins.
amerkhalid 8y ago
Absolutely, agree with you. And it should apply to adult entertainment too. When first I got Kindle, I really loved reading random books for free (Amazon Prime books). But then it got so much noise that now I can pretty much guarantee that if a book is available for free, it is worthless. My new rule is if I am not willing to pay for a book, I am not going to waste my time reading it.
- sireat 8y ago
  The problem is that even paid books can be horrible. I am a subscriber to Bookbub list which sends out e-mails to daily Amazon sales (0.00 to 1.99) on e-books of your chosen category. Quality wise it does not seem to matter on the price.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "I can pretty much guarantee that if a book is available for free, it is worthless." That is so, so false. There are many wonderful, amazing books on Project Gutenberg and Librivox, and they're all absolutely free. Sure, they're far outnumbered by garbage, but that's true even of books you have to pay for at other sites. You have to know how to look. Find reviews and recommendations (those do exist for free, public domain books). Especially with older books, word eventually gets around which are the "classics", and those usually have a pretty good chance of being worth reading, possibly even of being great. With experience you get a sense for which kinds of books you tend to like so can have a good chance of spotting an interesting book just from reading a synopsis or sometimes even just a title.
  - amerkhalid 8y ago
    Ok I am sorry, I overly-generalized. Yes, there are many free books which are great. My initial Kindle paid for itself when I read 10s of free classics.

Unpopular opinion: pay for the content you want and know that it is what it is, either iTunes, Kindle free time, etc.

by dpeck 8y ago

Unpopular opinion: pay for the content you want and know that it is what it is, either iTunes, Kindle free time, etc.

Another unpopular opinion: Parents should not let their children watch something that they have not themselves watched and approved. Edit: This isn't smugness. Do you think it's also smug to not run untrusted binaries? To not copy-and-paste from Stack Overflow into production? To say "thank you," or "yes, I've got it," when taking a blade from somebody else? To not run with scissors is my opinion, not because of smugness, but because I care about safety.

skywhopper 8y ago
Your brilliant insight is addressed in the article. It's fun to feel smug and say "just don't do X, duhhhh", but you are just ignoring the problem. "Just don't let your kids play with matches, duuuhhhh." Brilliant solution! Unfortunately your city is burning down around you.
- Avamander 8y ago
  What you just said is like saying: ""Brush your teeth" is a bad advice when you already have cavities". "Don't do X" is not ignoring the problem, it's literally the only way to avoid Y negative effect caused by X.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
jstarfish 8y ago
Kids shows are pretty inane. Sesame Street (and Spongebob, if you can stand it) at least throw bones to the adult audience every now and then, but there's nothing in an episode of PJ Masks to keep me engaged. That said, parents that unleash their kids on YouTube make about as much sense as encouraging them to go play in a dumpster. Its all fun and games until the obscenity surfaces and the feedback loop begins.

amerkhalid 8y ago

Absolutely, agree with you. And it should apply to adult entertainment too. When first I got Kindle, I really loved reading random books for free (Amazon Prime books). But then it got so much noise that now I can pretty much guarantee that if a book is available for free, it is worthless. My new rule is if I am not willing to pay for a book, I am not going to waste my time reading it.

sireat 8y ago
The problem is that even paid books can be horrible. I am a subscriber to Bookbub list which sends out e-mails to daily Amazon sales (0.00 to 1.99) on e-books of your chosen category. Quality wise it does not seem to matter on the price.
pmoriarty 8y ago
"I can pretty much guarantee that if a book is available for free, it is worthless." That is so, so false. There are many wonderful, amazing books on Project Gutenberg and Librivox, and they're all absolutely free. Sure, they're far outnumbered by garbage, but that's true even of books you have to pay for at other sites. You have to know how to look. Find reviews and recommendations (those do exist for free, public domain books). Especially with older books, word eventually gets around which are the "classics", and those usually have a pretty good chance of being worth reading, possibly even of being great. With experience you get a sense for which kinds of books you tend to like so can have a good chance of spotting an interesting book just from reading a synopsis or sometimes even just a title.
- amerkhalid 8y ago
  Ok I am sorry, I overly-generalized. Yes, there are many free books which are great. My initial Kindle paid for itself when I read 10s of free classics.