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Why every time a new technology comes out with crappy obvious limitations does somebody feel compelled to write a blog post trying to justify it as actually goo

Why every time a new technology comes out with crappy obvious limitations does somebody feel compelled to write a blog post trying to justify it as actually good? This is just somebody trying to talk themselves into keeping their $3,500 toy

iwontberude 3y ago
Funny because I was saying “Yes! Yes! Yes!” to myself as I was reading. This author totally gets me and what I want out of AVP and it’s the first time I am even seeing it written somewhere.
hnthrowaway0328 3y ago
Probably because we all want toys but need justifications so that wives don't get angry.
- saintlunaire 3y ago
  Wives read HN and enjoy new technologies too, FYI.
  - hnthrowaway0328 3y ago
    Not all wives apparently. If I follow my heart my wife will be a computer widow.
colechristensen 3y ago
The attention economy means that every time there's an opportunity, plenty of people will create attention grabbing responses with the common set of hot takes. Same goes for comment sections and any time people get the opportunity to do anything with a possible attention reward. I've taken to being conscious of the kinds of obnoxious/unhelpful/nitpicking responses when commenting in threads to try to discourage low quality responses.
dansalvato 3y ago
Author here—you’re not wrong, I’ve been a gadget enthusiast my whole life, and I deliberately left in the tone that I’m trying to justify owning an Apple Vision Pro, despite its flaws. I was also serious that the flaws are part of the charm for me, because it really does harken back to the “gadget age” of the 2000s. It takes me back to being 15 years old, wearing a Fossil Wrist PDA, trying to be productive with Palm OS using a fingernail-sized stylus. I really loved that sort of thing, and it’s been really hard for me to recapture that feeling this past decade. AVP is a device that, so far, has brought me joy and makes me think about my relationship with technology. If not for the price tag, it would be a no-brainer for me to keep. But as I continue to mess around with the device, the price is constantly ringing in the back of my mind, making me want to justify it, even though I may not be able to in the end.
jazzyjackson 3y ago
because the asymmetry of people who are curious and people who buy the new technology creates a demand for first impressions and think pieces
globular-toast 3y ago
I don't even get why people spend money on this stuff. You're just paying an idiot tax because you're a sucker for marketing. Someone who waits, say, 5 years before getting something like this will get more enjoyment out of it at a fraction of the price. Or it will just turn out to be a silly gimmick and they'll save the time and money entirely. Stuff like 3D TVs come to mind. The "patient gamers" subreddit seems to agree with this thinking. You basically just delay your game of choice by a few years. Makes absolutely no difference to you except you save money and perhaps skip some disappointing titles.
- megablast 3y ago
  Yes. It’s crazy people Just don’t wait 5 years. I assume You are being deliberately ridiculous?
  - drusepth 3y ago
    I intentionally wait years for a lot of things I want. Price aside, there are plenty of other benefits if the potential downsides (waiting, missing any social aspects, etc) aren't a big deal to you.
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  > Someone who waits, say, 5 years before getting something like this will get more enjoyment out of it at a fraction of the price. Probably not more enjoyment, unless you pretend the early buyer can never upgrade ever. > The "patient gamers" subreddit seems to agree with this thinking. You basically just delay your game of choice by a few years. Makes absolutely no difference to you except you save money and perhaps skip some disappointing titles. It makes no difference if you almost never talk about the game with anyone and want almost no multiplayer out of it either. That fits some games but definitely not others.
  - BlueTemplar 3y ago
    I'm not really sure you're getting it about that last bit : For instance I have spent some free hours in the last few days catching up on a game that I haven't played in nearly a decade, originally released in 1999. Right now I'm staring at a multiplayer lobby with nearly a thousand people (and this is only of the servers, though likely the most popular one). And if the game in question doesn't interest anyone after X years... there are probably good reasons for that ? Why would you first start playing and discussing it then ?
l33tman 3y ago
I find at least a little bit funny that it seems that completely new people now "discover" what you can do with VR, as if this hasn't been a thing for almost 10 years and certainly for the last 5 years (although with slightly lower resolution than with the AVP). But then again, it helps the entire industry that it apparently has reached a different audience this time who gets hyped again. I just wish there could be new use-cases than just the same old recycled use-cases like virtual monitors, watching movies, looking at how it is to stand on the moon, or virtual conferencing. Maybe there really are no killer VR apps, except beat saber :/ Wasn't AVP supposed to be an AR headset? Or they just haven't really figured out what to do there? Now it's just a VR headset with passthrough, it isn't really "using" the external world.
- bemusedthrow75 3y ago
  Oh, we are definitely in that punditry window where journalists write about an Apple product as if literally none of the precursor products matter at all, clambering over all the weaknesses and shortfalls as if they were the prone bodies of regular tech journalists who — perhaps distracted by their need for a long or wider perspective - fell on the ground on the way to be one of Cupertino’s chosen few. Also the window where wealthy early adopters confuse their ability to spend ridiculous money on a beta product with actual possession of insight or wisdom; this is the Z-tier of access journalism.
doorhammer 3y ago
This feels like an unnecessarily derisive take on a blog post where the author seems to just be expressing a personal experience. I read it as saying "this thing has some major limitations that forced me to slow down, which is actually valuable for me because I have ADHD. I didn't expect that and it's kind of neat, but who knows if that's actually valuable long term. Also here are some other details about the device imo" As someone who also has pretty severe adhd, I relate to the idea that barriers to impulsivity can be really valuable and it was interesting to read about someone experiencing that unintentionally. It makes me feel more connected to the world of people like me. I didn't come away thinking they're suggesting I buy one because I have adhd, honestly, I came away being _less_ likely to get one because of the author's description of their experience. It was just an experience another human found neat and wanted to put on their blog. I personally like when people feel comfortable and inspired to share like that.
nunez 3y ago
This happened tons with the first Apple Watch back in 2016. This was basically completely new product category for many, many people. Yes, the Pebble existed, but the Pebble was niche and ultra niche. (I had one; loved the original and the Time). The first Watch was crazy limited compared to today's variants, but the punditry was unceasing. Especially since you had people debating whether they should spend $10k on basically a flex.

iwontberude 3y ago

Funny because I was saying “Yes! Yes! Yes!” to myself as I was reading. This author totally gets me and what I want out of AVP and it’s the first time I am even seeing it written somewhere.

hnthrowaway0328 3y ago

Probably because we all want toys but need justifications so that wives don't get angry.

saintlunaire 3y ago
Wives read HN and enjoy new technologies too, FYI.
- hnthrowaway0328 3y ago
  Not all wives apparently. If I follow my heart my wife will be a computer widow.

colechristensen 3y ago

The attention economy means that every time there's an opportunity, plenty of people will create attention grabbing responses with the common set of hot takes. Same goes for comment sections and any time people get the opportunity to do anything with a possible attention reward. I've taken to being conscious of the kinds of obnoxious/unhelpful/nitpicking responses when commenting in threads to try to discourage low quality responses.

dansalvato 3y ago

Author here—you’re not wrong, I’ve been a gadget enthusiast my whole life, and I deliberately left in the tone that I’m trying to justify owning an Apple Vision Pro, despite its flaws. I was also serious that the flaws are part of the charm for me, because it really does harken back to the “gadget age” of the 2000s. It takes me back to being 15 years old, wearing a Fossil Wrist PDA, trying to be productive with Palm OS using a fingernail-sized stylus. I really loved that sort of thing, and it’s been really hard for me to recapture that feeling this past decade. AVP is a device that, so far, has brought me joy and makes me think about my relationship with technology. If not for the price tag, it would be a no-brainer for me to keep. But as I continue to mess around with the device, the price is constantly ringing in the back of my mind, making me want to justify it, even though I may not be able to in the end.

jazzyjackson 3y ago

because the asymmetry of people who are curious and people who buy the new technology creates a demand for first impressions and think pieces

globular-toast 3y ago

I don't even get why people spend money on this stuff. You're just paying an idiot tax because you're a sucker for marketing. Someone who waits, say, 5 years before getting something like this will get more enjoyment out of it at a fraction of the price. Or it will just turn out to be a silly gimmick and they'll save the time and money entirely. Stuff like 3D TVs come to mind. The "patient gamers" subreddit seems to agree with this thinking. You basically just delay your game of choice by a few years. Makes absolutely no difference to you except you save money and perhaps skip some disappointing titles.

megablast 3y ago
Yes. It’s crazy people Just don’t wait 5 years. I assume You are being deliberately ridiculous?
- drusepth 3y ago
  I intentionally wait years for a lot of things I want. Price aside, there are plenty of other benefits if the potential downsides (waiting, missing any social aspects, etc) aren't a big deal to you.
Dylan16807 3y ago
> Someone who waits, say, 5 years before getting something like this will get more enjoyment out of it at a fraction of the price. Probably not more enjoyment, unless you pretend the early buyer can never upgrade ever. > The "patient gamers" subreddit seems to agree with this thinking. You basically just delay your game of choice by a few years. Makes absolutely no difference to you except you save money and perhaps skip some disappointing titles. It makes no difference if you almost never talk about the game with anyone and want almost no multiplayer out of it either. That fits some games but definitely not others.
- BlueTemplar 3y ago
  I'm not really sure you're getting it about that last bit : For instance I have spent some free hours in the last few days catching up on a game that I haven't played in nearly a decade, originally released in 1999. Right now I'm staring at a multiplayer lobby with nearly a thousand people (and this is only of the servers, though likely the most popular one). And if the game in question doesn't interest anyone after X years... there are probably good reasons for that ? Why would you first start playing and discussing it then ?

l33tman 3y ago

I find at least a little bit funny that it seems that completely new people now "discover" what you can do with VR, as if this hasn't been a thing for almost 10 years and certainly for the last 5 years (although with slightly lower resolution than with the AVP). But then again, it helps the entire industry that it apparently has reached a different audience this time who gets hyped again. I just wish there could be new use-cases than just the same old recycled use-cases like virtual monitors, watching movies, looking at how it is to stand on the moon, or virtual conferencing. Maybe there really are no killer VR apps, except beat saber :/ Wasn't AVP supposed to be an AR headset? Or they just haven't really figured out what to do there? Now it's just a VR headset with passthrough, it isn't really "using" the external world.

bemusedthrow75 3y ago
Oh, we are definitely in that punditry window where journalists write about an Apple product as if literally none of the precursor products matter at all, clambering over all the weaknesses and shortfalls as if they were the prone bodies of regular tech journalists who — perhaps distracted by their need for a long or wider perspective - fell on the ground on the way to be one of Cupertino’s chosen few. Also the window where wealthy early adopters confuse their ability to spend ridiculous money on a beta product with actual possession of insight or wisdom; this is the Z-tier of access journalism.

doorhammer 3y ago

This feels like an unnecessarily derisive take on a blog post where the author seems to just be expressing a personal experience. I read it as saying "this thing has some major limitations that forced me to slow down, which is actually valuable for me because I have ADHD. I didn't expect that and it's kind of neat, but who knows if that's actually valuable long term. Also here are some other details about the device imo" As someone who also has pretty severe adhd, I relate to the idea that barriers to impulsivity can be really valuable and it was interesting to read about someone experiencing that unintentionally. It makes me feel more connected to the world of people like me. I didn't come away thinking they're suggesting I buy one because I have adhd, honestly, I came away being _less_ likely to get one because of the author's description of their experience. It was just an experience another human found neat and wanted to put on their blog. I personally like when people feel comfortable and inspired to share like that.

nunez 3y ago

This happened tons with the first Apple Watch back in 2016. This was basically completely new product category for many, many people. Yes, the Pebble existed, but the Pebble was niche and ultra niche. (I had one; loved the original and the Time). The first Watch was crazy limited compared to today's variants, but the punditry was unceasing. Especially since you had people debating whether they should spend $10k on basically a flex.