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Humanity has never been furthered by what the masses were itching to get. In fact it's almost always the exact opposite. I'm not saying there's something intri

Humanity has never been furthered by what the masses were itching to get. In fact it's almost always the exact opposite. I'm not saying there's something intrinsically good about being contrarian, I'm just saying it feels like a whole lot of products, especially but not exclusively in tech, feel so "samey". It's all the same crap just differently branded in different colors, and I feel like algorithms are possibly to blame for that. Going to stores in the old days used to be exciting, you'd always find something new and interesting, especially in Radioshack n such. Now it's just the same old bullshit every single time.

avgDev 8y ago
I think when you refer to going to stores in the "old days" and finding new and exciting stuff basically means things were new for you at the time. The more you learn about world and the older you get things begin to excite you less. The more you know the less excited you get about marketing because you can actually see through the bullshit.
- FussyZeus 8y ago
  I have to disagree. Products were just more interesting in the 90s and even early 2000s. Tech is the line going through the big-suck right now but cars did the same thing from the 1970's to the 2000's: where once you had different models and styles sporting different looks, different and novel features, etc. you see things slowly boil down to a few good exceptions and the rest of it might as well be all the same thing (and with the example of cars, often is, what with manufacturers selling to each other and re-badging for different markets.) Not long ago, shopping for a laptop was interesting. Did you want the one with the swiveling screen, or the one that was liquid cooled? The one with the super HD screen or the one with the built-in fold-out legs to angle the keyboard better? Thick keys or thin keys? Optical or no? A novel visual design or just as-thin-as-can-be? What were the pros and cons to all this? On and on. Now all laptops practically look identical, even something with a somewhat novel design becomes 2-3 times the price for no additional power, and all of them are designed to overheat and die within a couple of years, with the exception possibly of Macbooks, which cost a King's ransom. There's no novelty or interesting ideas, just the same old things.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > Now all laptops practically look identical No, they don't. Most of the options you point to from “not long ago" (and many more) are still available. Okay, I don't see liquid cooled or fold-out legs much, and swivel screens seem to have been displaced with the 360-degree hinges.

avgDev 8y ago

I think when you refer to going to stores in the "old days" and finding new and exciting stuff basically means things were new for you at the time. The more you learn about world and the older you get things begin to excite you less. The more you know the less excited you get about marketing because you can actually see through the bullshit.

FussyZeus 8y ago
I have to disagree. Products were just more interesting in the 90s and even early 2000s. Tech is the line going through the big-suck right now but cars did the same thing from the 1970's to the 2000's: where once you had different models and styles sporting different looks, different and novel features, etc. you see things slowly boil down to a few good exceptions and the rest of it might as well be all the same thing (and with the example of cars, often is, what with manufacturers selling to each other and re-badging for different markets.) Not long ago, shopping for a laptop was interesting. Did you want the one with the swiveling screen, or the one that was liquid cooled? The one with the super HD screen or the one with the built-in fold-out legs to angle the keyboard better? Thick keys or thin keys? Optical or no? A novel visual design or just as-thin-as-can-be? What were the pros and cons to all this? On and on. Now all laptops practically look identical, even something with a somewhat novel design becomes 2-3 times the price for no additional power, and all of them are designed to overheat and die within a couple of years, with the exception possibly of Macbooks, which cost a King's ransom. There's no novelty or interesting ideas, just the same old things.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Now all laptops practically look identical No, they don't. Most of the options you point to from “not long ago" (and many more) are still available. Okay, I don't see liquid cooled or fold-out legs much, and swivel screens seem to have been displaced with the 360-degree hinges.