4 ms·

Are you happy? I missed so many experiences sitting in front of the computer all day, it didn’t really get me any further than if I had taken a more modest int

• jasonv 6y ago
  I have an almost 17 year old who doesn't want a smartphone. He plays Minecraft/KSP about 90 minutes each night. But he'd always, always accept an offer to do something else with me or someone else in the family. So I make sure, as his father, to make that offer sometimes. And I also feel fine if I'm feeling like a book or a movie or something else. Not all kids become [insert teenager cliches] upon the onset of teenage-dom, for all the different reasons this can be true... but when I was his age, I definitely defaulted to getting on the computer instead of doing other things. I do think it's interesting how little discussion there is in culling digital behaviors moreso during pandemic times. I personally don't have a lot of interest in any of the new iPhones because my iPhone mostly lives on my desk at home. It hardly ever gets out.
  • RonanTheGrey 6y ago
    How the hell did you manage this. Honestly what's your secret. I need to make sure my kids turn out this way. I want tech to augment their lives, not replace them (or destroy them).
    • smabie 6y ago
      Why do you think he somehow "managed" this? How your children act and what they want to do is, in many ways, beyond your control. Do you think of yourself like that? Like "I acted like X because my parents raised me like Y?" I certainly don't.
  • damnencryption 6y ago
    I spent a year of my starting teenage years tinkering with my android phone. Custom ROM and stuff. Then I got a better PC and spent time trying to make website to earn money because everyone was doing it. I failed. AdSense didn't pay me anything. I realized it was more profitable to make a blog on how to make money online than go try if yourself. I built my first gaming rig. Played few games and got bored after a few months. I ended up watching death note on YouTube through recommendations. Finished 500+ anime within a year. It was the best past time after school. Got bored of that. This time, I though of making money using software. Worked with WordPress, earned some cash fixing people's site and optimizing them by removing useless plugins, adding yoast SEO, improving cache and moving people from shared hosting on GoDaddy. I started to tinker with PHP code and themes like Divi, adata. Then I wanted to build a CMS. Looked up stuff and it felt complicated so after trying for a few weeks, dropped the idea. Now I got into novels and manga because I was running out of anime. Probably 700+ or so titles. Enjoyed that for a bit. Finished Chinese, russian, Japanese, etc light novels using Google translate. It was fun. I was addicted. Now something clicked again and I purchased courses on udemy for 90% discount (yeah it is always discounted). Finally, I knew enough programming after few weeks to create a CMS. I did that but it turned pretty poor compared to WordPress. Joined an online non-profit therapy group. Listened to people and gave advice...in retrospect, k shouldn't have done that. Joined discord, spent time there and well learnt more about weird internet cultures and spheres. Started to get worried about future. Spent time researching health insurance, FIRE, investment and saving strategies. Opened broker account on few online sites using my dad's identity. Landed on r/wsb. Spent few weeks researching and stalking people there. Concluded it was nothing more than gambling. I started buying equity. Built a decent portfolio. Then diversified with Forex and SIP index fund. Roughly more or less how I spent my teenage years. There are lot of other small and things I did but will be too personal.
• aperrien 6y ago
  All happiness is temporary and short lived. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I believe that any action that gave us truly permanent happiness would turn us into lotus eaters...
• sergiomattei 6y ago
  Yes. What's your point? Moderation has always been necessary.