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I'm not sure. With every generation some tech pops up that'll make every next generation worse off and in the end there's just something else people spend time

I'm not sure. With every generation some tech pops up that'll make every next generation worse off and in the end there's just something else people spend time on. My generation built their own PC's, struggled to install Windows by popping tons of floppies in a drive and hoping none of the steps failed, our internet connection made sounds and we learned DHCP the hard way. The generation after me is hardly able to reset their iPhone if it freezes without going to a help desk for help. Meanwhile, that same generation is using the cameras in their phones, readily available video editing software and processing power to create content like no generation has ever before. They are able to entertain millions of people around the globe while doing it and some build incredible wealth at the same time. My grandfather built his own house. My generation gets their house delivered in prefab parts that are then welded together. Nobody really cares that we've lost (the majority of) the ability to build houses or blacksmith katanas.

loup-vaillant 3y ago
> They are able to entertain millions of people around the globe while doing it and some build incredible wealth at the same time. I think you meant hoard incredible wealth? There's a limit to how much wealth you can actually create with immaterial entertainment alone. Even a best seller book: it takes time to read, so while it provides value to millions of readers, it also removes value in the form of opportunity cost. No way around choosing what to do with your own time. Other alternatives have more potential. Educational content could lift some people out of incompetence and help them build actual wealth (say a very good programming or sawing tutorial). Writing useful software could also create wealth, even more so if it's Free (and free). And of course, building stuff (while taking care not to deplete our resources or burning up our planet…). We say that people "make" money, but that's a dangerously misleading idiom. They don't actually make money, they extract money. Hopefully this money is actually earned in proportion to the value they actually injected into society (make a chair, get paid for the chair, all fair and square). But never forget that the people who "make" the most money generally do so by taking it from other people. Employers, landlords, stakeholders… who get most of their "earnings" not from what they do, but from what they own.
- admax88qqq 3y ago
  What makes a chair more valuable to society than entertainment?
  - joelfried 3y ago
    Many of us have the ability to entertain ourselves entirely within our own minds on the regular. None of us can snap our fingers and summon a chair from nothingness. Do you know anybody who owns zero chairs?
    - hnfong 3y ago
      There are cultures that don't use chairs. The Japanese generally didn't use them (I think?) before they came into contact with European civilization. I don't think any civilization could survive without entertainment though.
    - admax88qqq 3y ago
      Many of us can sit on the ground or in a deep squat. None of us can snap our fingers and summon a book from nothingness.
      - roguas 3y ago
        sure, you can, many did, they are called authors
  - loup-vaillant 3y ago
    I did not say it was.
  - squirtlebonflow 3y ago
    You can't rest your legs on an entertainment
    - lxgr 3y ago
      Yet the entertainment I'm getting out of my chairs is limited. But I think this is a false dichotomy: A comfortable armchair and a good book go well together.
noobermin 3y ago
Just a thought, why is it ok these skills were lost? You never really said whether it was good or bad, just that it happened.
- Karrot_Kream 3y ago
  Okay in the sense that nobody really mourns their loss aside from a few and it has no material impact on our understandings of underlying phenomena. My partner's grandfather was a wizard on the abacus, my grandfather loved his slide rule, but a calculator and now smartphone can do all of that much better. Has computation been retarded due to the lost knowledge of operating the abacus? There's probably been thousands of skills that have been lost that doesn't really affect our everyday lives.

loup-vaillant 3y ago

> They are able to entertain millions of people around the globe while doing it and some build incredible wealth at the same time. I think you meant hoard incredible wealth? There's a limit to how much wealth you can actually create with immaterial entertainment alone. Even a best seller book: it takes time to read, so while it provides value to millions of readers, it also removes value in the form of opportunity cost. No way around choosing what to do with your own time. Other alternatives have more potential. Educational content could lift some people out of incompetence and help them build actual wealth (say a very good programming or sawing tutorial). Writing useful software could also create wealth, even more so if it's Free (and free). And of course, building stuff (while taking care not to deplete our resources or burning up our planet…). We say that people "make" money, but that's a dangerously misleading idiom. They don't actually make money, they extract money. Hopefully this money is actually earned in proportion to the value they actually injected into society (make a chair, get paid for the chair, all fair and square). But never forget that the people who "make" the most money generally do so by taking it from other people. Employers, landlords, stakeholders… who get most of their "earnings" not from what they do, but from what they own.

admax88qqq 3y ago
What makes a chair more valuable to society than entertainment?
- joelfried 3y ago
  Many of us have the ability to entertain ourselves entirely within our own minds on the regular. None of us can snap our fingers and summon a chair from nothingness. Do you know anybody who owns zero chairs?
  - hnfong 3y ago
    There are cultures that don't use chairs. The Japanese generally didn't use them (I think?) before they came into contact with European civilization. I don't think any civilization could survive without entertainment though.
  - admax88qqq 3y ago
    Many of us can sit on the ground or in a deep squat. None of us can snap our fingers and summon a book from nothingness.
    - roguas 3y ago
      sure, you can, many did, they are called authors
- loup-vaillant 3y ago
  I did not say it was.
- squirtlebonflow 3y ago
  You can't rest your legs on an entertainment
  - lxgr 3y ago
    Yet the entertainment I'm getting out of my chairs is limited. But I think this is a false dichotomy: A comfortable armchair and a good book go well together.

noobermin 3y ago

Just a thought, why is it ok these skills were lost? You never really said whether it was good or bad, just that it happened.

Karrot_Kream 3y ago
Okay in the sense that nobody really mourns their loss aside from a few and it has no material impact on our understandings of underlying phenomena. My partner's grandfather was a wizard on the abacus, my grandfather loved his slide rule, but a calculator and now smartphone can do all of that much better. Has computation been retarded due to the lost knowledge of operating the abacus? There's probably been thousands of skills that have been lost that doesn't really affect our everyday lives.