3 ms·

It's a bit of a myth of the modern age that desire is unlimited. I think this is wrong. At some point our desire can be sated. Eg, I'm pretty sure Bill Gates o

It's a bit of a myth of the modern age that desire is unlimited. I think this is wrong. At some point our desire can be sated. Eg, I'm pretty sure Bill Gates or Elon Musk don't buy the newest, latest phone that comes out every single time. Because at some point you find something that works well enough, and just thinking of using something else involves effort. Even if V2 is theoretically faster or has more RAM, maybe you have no need for that yet. As tech improves, this happens more and more often. Back in the time of 4MB RAM, memory was an ever constant worry and constraint. Today I'm at the point where I only think about RAM or disk space is when something goes nuts and fills up the available space, otherwise it's just not an issue, and I just don't think of upgrading. I think 5G is pretty much there. After having smooth, quality playback on youtube on my phone, my needs are fully sated. There's just nothing I need that requires downloading stuff to my phone any faster, and in fact it's been a long time since I last thought about how quickly my phone downloads stuff.

martinald 4y ago
Until 5G gets congested though. You wouldn't notice the difference between a uncongested LTE site with say 3CA, and a 5G site. The reason 5G feels good is that it isn't as congested (yet), unlike LTE.
aziaziazi 4y ago
Supporting the economic growth needs a country to produce and people to consume (= “buy new”, not “use existing”). When you’re stating you’ve got enough power and possibilities with the state of the art to be happy, you’re restraining your country GDP. Would you favor your own happiness instead of economic growth ? :)
OJFord 4y ago
> Eg, I'm pretty sure Bill Gates or Elon Musk don't buy the newest, latest phone that comes out every single time. Because at some point you find something that works well enough, and just thinking of using something else involves effort. Even if V2 is theoretically faster or has more RAM, maybe you have no need for that yet. I don't think you have to look to billionaires for that - surely for the majority of HN users what we spend and how often we spend it on a phone isn't limited by what we can afford? I've been using the same ~£150 phone for I think 4-5 years - I could have afforded however many top-spec iPhones or Pixels or whatever came out in that time, but I don't play games on my phone or do anything intensive that requires it, I just need to be able to message people and browse the web basically.
- scarface74 4y ago
  Anecdotes aside the average user keeps their phone 2.6 years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphone-life/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphon... The ASP of a new phone in 2021 (latest non pay walled site i could find) was $321 https://statinvestor.com/data/35666/smartphone-average-selling-price-worldwide/ https://statinvestor.com/data/35666/smartphone-average-selli... And if someone makes over $100K a year, statistically they are probably an iPhone user. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3668913/you-are-the-product-but-with-an-apple-twist.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3668913/you-are-the-pr... The ASP of an iPhone is $825
  - OJFord 4y ago
    I'm not sure if that's supposed to contradict my point, but I don't think an iPhone user earning $100k is skipping a model, upgrading only every 2.6y, because they can't afford to upgrade faster.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      The point I’m making is that most people aren’t buying $110 phones and keeping them for years and most people making what the stereotypical HN user makes also isn’t buying $110 phones.
      - OJFord 4y ago
        But that's because they want a phone that happens to be more expensive, not because they (necessarily) have a greater capacity to afford it than (all) those of us with cheaper ones, was my point. Obviously there are people with a phone choice that has been limited by their ability to spend, I'm not denying that, I'm just saying you don't have to look nearly as far as billionaires for those who aren't. If you prefer, I could equally have phrased it as people buying iPhones as frequently as they come out or not, either way needn't be billionaires; in the former case becoming a billionaire is unlikely to make you suddenly see that as an excess.
- 4y ago

martinald 4y ago

Until 5G gets congested though. You wouldn't notice the difference between a uncongested LTE site with say 3CA, and a 5G site. The reason 5G feels good is that it isn't as congested (yet), unlike LTE.

aziaziazi 4y ago

Supporting the economic growth needs a country to produce and people to consume (= “buy new”, not “use existing”). When you’re stating you’ve got enough power and possibilities with the state of the art to be happy, you’re restraining your country GDP. Would you favor your own happiness instead of economic growth ? :)

OJFord 4y ago

> Eg, I'm pretty sure Bill Gates or Elon Musk don't buy the newest, latest phone that comes out every single time. Because at some point you find something that works well enough, and just thinking of using something else involves effort. Even if V2 is theoretically faster or has more RAM, maybe you have no need for that yet. I don't think you have to look to billionaires for that - surely for the majority of HN users what we spend and how often we spend it on a phone isn't limited by what we can afford? I've been using the same ~£150 phone for I think 4-5 years - I could have afforded however many top-spec iPhones or Pixels or whatever came out in that time, but I don't play games on my phone or do anything intensive that requires it, I just need to be able to message people and browse the web basically.

scarface74 4y ago
Anecdotes aside the average user keeps their phone 2.6 years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphone-life/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphon... The ASP of a new phone in 2021 (latest non pay walled site i could find) was $321 https://statinvestor.com/data/35666/smartphone-average-selling-price-worldwide/ https://statinvestor.com/data/35666/smartphone-average-selli... And if someone makes over $100K a year, statistically they are probably an iPhone user. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3668913/you-are-the-product-but-with-an-apple-twist.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3668913/you-are-the-pr... The ASP of an iPhone is $825
- OJFord 4y ago
  I'm not sure if that's supposed to contradict my point, but I don't think an iPhone user earning $100k is skipping a model, upgrading only every 2.6y, because they can't afford to upgrade faster.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    The point I’m making is that most people aren’t buying $110 phones and keeping them for years and most people making what the stereotypical HN user makes also isn’t buying $110 phones.
    - OJFord 4y ago
      But that's because they want a phone that happens to be more expensive, not because they (necessarily) have a greater capacity to afford it than (all) those of us with cheaper ones, was my point. Obviously there are people with a phone choice that has been limited by their ability to spend, I'm not denying that, I'm just saying you don't have to look nearly as far as billionaires for those who aren't. If you prefer, I could equally have phrased it as people buying iPhones as frequently as they come out or not, either way needn't be billionaires; in the former case becoming a billionaire is unlikely to make you suddenly see that as an excess.
4y ago