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There are lots of people living by themselves or at least spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves. As for comfort wearing this for extended peri

There are lots of people living by themselves or at least spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves. As for comfort wearing this for extended periods of time, we'll have to see. I think that will be the key deciding factor. There was a lot of marketing speak in the original announcement suggesting that they did work quite hard on this issue and made some progress. A light enough device that can provide the experience of having a ginormous screen in front of your nose without inducing headaches, motion sickness, etc. could be a nice thing to have. If somebody delivers such a thing, people will be reluctant to turn them off possibly. As for replacing existing things, there's a long history of people thinking about new products in terms of how the old one worked. The more interesting question to ask is what new content will emerge for this thing.

sho_hn 3y ago
> There are lots of people living by themselves or at least spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves. Is this great? It's a market, maybe, but it is it one we want to incentivize and grow? Increasingly I feel like we, as an industry, lean too hard into providing lesser-resistance substitutes for mentally and socially healthier lifestyles, and that "we are not making the choice for them, the root problem has to be solved somewhere else" is a cop-out. The massive amount of effort we spend on boyfriend/girlfriend replacement tech, meet-up-with-friends replacement tech, experience-interesting-places replacement tech is starting to worry me.
- notamy 3y ago
  It’s depressing. It feels like we keep making technological solutions to maximise profit at the expense of people’s mental/emotional health.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    That's exactly what they're doing. And as a side effect, everyone wanting to maximize profit means that everything costs money, and that means everyone wants money, and that means money is hard to get! At least, it's hard to get for people who don't happen to already be at the top of some empire.
- jmull 3y ago
  Why assume people spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves is bad? It can certainly be done at an unhealthy level but you can say that about a lot of things. If it is bad, then you'd have to discourage things like reading books. And I guess, depending on what you think is wrong with it, maybe discourage other mainly solitary pursuits.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  > but it is it one we want to incentivize and grow? Why on earth not? Reading books is solitary. Programming is usually solitary. A lot of hobbies are solitary. But you can watch a show on your own and then talk about it the next day with your friends.
- jillesvangurp 3y ago
  Who is the royal "we" here? You don't have to buy this thing if you don't want to. Why are you judging others that might decide otherwise? I think it's very simple. If this thing works more or less as advertised, lots of people might buy it. I don't think it's a given Apple has another winner here but I wouldn't exclude the possibility. And I was kind of impressed with what they announced last year.

sho_hn 3y ago

> There are lots of people living by themselves or at least spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves. Is this great? It's a market, maybe, but it is it one we want to incentivize and grow? Increasingly I feel like we, as an industry, lean too hard into providing lesser-resistance substitutes for mentally and socially healthier lifestyles, and that "we are not making the choice for them, the root problem has to be solved somewhere else" is a cop-out. The massive amount of effort we spend on boyfriend/girlfriend replacement tech, meet-up-with-friends replacement tech, experience-interesting-places replacement tech is starting to worry me.

notamy 3y ago
It’s depressing. It feels like we keep making technological solutions to maximise profit at the expense of people’s mental/emotional health.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  That's exactly what they're doing. And as a side effect, everyone wanting to maximize profit means that everything costs money, and that means everyone wants money, and that means money is hard to get! At least, it's hard to get for people who don't happen to already be at the top of some empire.
jmull 3y ago
Why assume people spending a lot of time consuming content by themselves is bad? It can certainly be done at an unhealthy level but you can say that about a lot of things. If it is bad, then you'd have to discourage things like reading books. And I guess, depending on what you think is wrong with it, maybe discourage other mainly solitary pursuits.
crazygringo 3y ago
> but it is it one we want to incentivize and grow? Why on earth not? Reading books is solitary. Programming is usually solitary. A lot of hobbies are solitary. But you can watch a show on your own and then talk about it the next day with your friends.
jillesvangurp 3y ago
Who is the royal "we" here? You don't have to buy this thing if you don't want to. Why are you judging others that might decide otherwise? I think it's very simple. If this thing works more or less as advertised, lots of people might buy it. I don't think it's a given Apple has another winner here but I wouldn't exclude the possibility. And I was kind of impressed with what they announced last year.