3 ms·

Don't just think about millenials and older, consider younger M's and zoomers. These people have grown up (in the developed world) with constant always-on conne

Don't just think about millenials and older, consider younger M's and zoomers. These people have grown up (in the developed world) with constant always-on connectivity. Parents want their kids to be connected for safety reasons. Schools don't want to pay for paper books so they get every kid to have a laptop or tablet. In university, you cannot operate without a laptop, and I doubt it would be easy to work without a cell phone. I agree it's not very healthy, and I agree many people don't understand. I personally am working on using "do not disturb" a lot more on my phone, so that only calls will get through in real-time. That said, to say "1999 was only 20 years ago" really doesn't capture _how much has changed_ in those 20 years.

rchaud 6y ago
> In university, you cannot operate without a laptop, and I doubt it would be easy to work without a cell phone. I was in uni 15 years ago and the first mistake I made was trying to do course readings of JSTOR/ScienceDirect papers directly on the screen. I thought I'd be saving paper, as after all the readings amounted to 500 or more pages per course. After a semester of destroying my eyes and being unable to remember key details, I thought "screw that". Printed out every single reading after that. It took until 2017 to have a consumer product like the ReMarkable that's large enough to comfortably display PDFs and allow for marking up with a pressure sensitive pen.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  > It took until 2017 to have a consumer product like the ReMarkable that's large enough to comfortably display PDFs and allow for marking up with a pressure sensitive pen. It blows my mind just how good the reMarkable is, and how long it took to happen.
  - filoleg 6y ago
    I was seriously considering purchasing one, as it seems to tick off a lot of boxes for me, including hackability and a rather significant open-source enthusiast community around it. The lack of a simple feature that is backlight killed it off for me though. After using ebooks for the past decade, I cannot go back to using one without a backlight. I still use backlight at a bare minimum, but a complete lack of it seems like a serious oversight. Looking forward to remarkable v3, as I expect them to address this, given how simple and requested this feature is.
    - dredmorbius 6y ago
      Recent Onyx BOOX user. Excellent and large displays, 10.3" and 13.3" (effectively A4). And Frontlight.
    - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      So, I didn't realise it didn't have a backlight until it arrived. I would certainly have been more hesitant if I'd realised that. That being said, it's an absolutely amazing device, it really is digital paper. If you enjoy reading technical papers, it's totally worth it, I've read more papers in the two weeks since I got it than in the two months before. And the notetaking, oh the notetaking. I can now write notes much more easily, and they are automatically digitised so I can find them later, and on different devices. It's incredibly good, I suspect where I'll love it the most is for interviews, as it's much easier for me to write than it is to type (and feels much less rude also).
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  The unsuitability of laptops for PDF reading is absolutely inexcusable. Ebook readers rock.

rchaud 6y ago

> In university, you cannot operate without a laptop, and I doubt it would be easy to work without a cell phone. I was in uni 15 years ago and the first mistake I made was trying to do course readings of JSTOR/ScienceDirect papers directly on the screen. I thought I'd be saving paper, as after all the readings amounted to 500 or more pages per course. After a semester of destroying my eyes and being unable to remember key details, I thought "screw that". Printed out every single reading after that. It took until 2017 to have a consumer product like the ReMarkable that's large enough to comfortably display PDFs and allow for marking up with a pressure sensitive pen.

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
> It took until 2017 to have a consumer product like the ReMarkable that's large enough to comfortably display PDFs and allow for marking up with a pressure sensitive pen. It blows my mind just how good the reMarkable is, and how long it took to happen.
- filoleg 6y ago
  I was seriously considering purchasing one, as it seems to tick off a lot of boxes for me, including hackability and a rather significant open-source enthusiast community around it. The lack of a simple feature that is backlight killed it off for me though. After using ebooks for the past decade, I cannot go back to using one without a backlight. I still use backlight at a bare minimum, but a complete lack of it seems like a serious oversight. Looking forward to remarkable v3, as I expect them to address this, given how simple and requested this feature is.
  - dredmorbius 6y ago
    Recent Onyx BOOX user. Excellent and large displays, 10.3" and 13.3" (effectively A4). And Frontlight.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    So, I didn't realise it didn't have a backlight until it arrived. I would certainly have been more hesitant if I'd realised that. That being said, it's an absolutely amazing device, it really is digital paper. If you enjoy reading technical papers, it's totally worth it, I've read more papers in the two weeks since I got it than in the two months before. And the notetaking, oh the notetaking. I can now write notes much more easily, and they are automatically digitised so I can find them later, and on different devices. It's incredibly good, I suspect where I'll love it the most is for interviews, as it's much easier for me to write than it is to type (and feels much less rude also).
dredmorbius 6y ago
The unsuitability of laptops for PDF reading is absolutely inexcusable. Ebook readers rock.