4 ms·

I've noticed this in many categories, where almost everything in the category converges extremely specifically on qualities that I simply... do not like, at all

I've noticed this in many categories, where almost everything in the category converges extremely specifically on qualities that I simply... do not like, at all. For example, laptops and the "thin and light" fad. I may have different needs from the average person, but why does nobody else have these needs? Am I the only autistic person on the planet, the only software developer on the planet, the only person on the planet who likes to be productive on a laptop? The only person on the planet who practically lives in their laptop? I think hopefully not, but this is like... probably under 1% of people. And you know, almost nobody caters to this niche because if you cater to the 99% (or more) instead, you make so much more money! I fucking hate having special needs sometimes.

Terr_ 2y ago
Uhm, I really don't think that the market-segment of "people who prefer other laptop aspects more than portability" is best-described as "autistic." Late-P.S.: The opposite direction seems iffy too, assuming the word isn't being used in a 4-chan-esque broad online-person insult sense.
- LoganDark 2y ago
  It's autistic for the computer to be an extension of your brain. For you to think in computing, for the performance of your computer to be central to the performance of your thought. Access to powerful computers has shaped the way I think and work to the point where I practically live online. I'm not a hacker in the traditional sense, but the computer is my world, the internet is my home. Not in the shallow, social-media sense, like today's "influencers", but in a deep fundamental way. I don't even identify with humanity; being online allowed me to create my ideal self from scratch. There are so many niches here I don't even know how to start listing them all. I am a unique type of person. I have not yet found even a single other person like me in this way. I have found a total of two other people who share my neurotype but none that share my attitude. That is how lonely it is. Sure looking for certain things in a laptop is not necessarily autistic. But think of the reasons why people would look for these things. Normal people don't care as long as it works and is good enough for them. Because I live on this computer, every detail of how it works needs to be right. I need something that is perfect for me. I need a perfect screen, perfect keyboard, and high performance, all at the same time. Every machine with that perfect screen and perfect keyboard tends to get it mixed up with being "thin and light" and all that performance goes away. I hate that. I can get used to some deviation. A lot of my preferences are simply resistance to change. But a lot of them are because I've tried anything else (possibly for years) and I hated it. There are things that I genuinely consider better and they're practically not available in a package that works for me.
thom 2y ago
What features are you seeking that aren’t available? There are many powerful, heavy laptops. There are many 16+ inch form factors. My current laptop has dual screens! I agree it can be frustrating when the mainstream focuses on things you don’t like, but that doesn’t always exclude the things you do. I don’t like pop music but there’s more music I like now than when I was young.
- LoganDark 2y ago
  > What features are you seeking that aren’t available? There are many powerful, heavy laptops. There are many 16+ inch form factors. My current laptop has dual screens! Sure, there are many powerful, heavy laptops. Almost none with a HiDPI screen, though. And almost none that lack a numpad (and off-center trackpad). And almost none with half-height arrow keys, even among the ones without numpad. To find one with all three of those? You may as well not even try. I have more requirements, but nobody really cares even about the most basic ones, so there's no point in hoping for the more complex ones. Even among laptops with 4K screens they're bound to have "full-size" keyboards with a numpad. If no numpad, the arrow keys are still likely to be full-size, and there are probably dedicated Home/End/PgUp/PgDn buttons, which are always stupid compared to putting them into Fn+Arrows. I get it, portable workstations are designed to be desktops in a laptop form factor. They're not designed to be laptops. But maybe something out there should be. Maybe there should be even a single laptop on the planet that is actually designed like a premium laptop, with workstation-class power inside. There probably won't be, though - far more likely for everybody to tell me my expectations are completely unrealistic. (It'll happen any second now, probably.) > I agree it can be frustrating when the mainstream focuses on things you don’t like, but that doesn’t always exclude the things you do. The Framework Laptop 16 is one of the first Windows laptops I have ever seen that checks many of those boxes, but unfortunately it's still thin and light (and also AMD). I recently got a Apple 16" MacBook Pro and it's okay. Really many of my requirements were inherited from the Mid-2015 MBP being possibly the best machine I'd ever used, but then Apple became terrible for a while, and nobody else (not even Razer) did a good job of replicating what I liked about that machine.
  - nottorp 2y ago
panstromek 2y ago
You might be an exception. I, as a developer, really want "thin and light" laptop to make it as efforless as possible to carry it around and use anywhere. I've made the mistake of buying a heavy powerful one, and I basically never carry it around, because it's just too impractical.

Terr_ 2y ago

Uhm, I really don't think that the market-segment of "people who prefer other laptop aspects more than portability" is best-described as "autistic." Late-P.S.: The opposite direction seems iffy too, assuming the word isn't being used in a 4-chan-esque broad online-person insult sense.

LoganDark 2y ago
It's autistic for the computer to be an extension of your brain. For you to think in computing, for the performance of your computer to be central to the performance of your thought. Access to powerful computers has shaped the way I think and work to the point where I practically live online. I'm not a hacker in the traditional sense, but the computer is my world, the internet is my home. Not in the shallow, social-media sense, like today's "influencers", but in a deep fundamental way. I don't even identify with humanity; being online allowed me to create my ideal self from scratch. There are so many niches here I don't even know how to start listing them all. I am a unique type of person. I have not yet found even a single other person like me in this way. I have found a total of two other people who share my neurotype but none that share my attitude. That is how lonely it is. Sure looking for certain things in a laptop is not necessarily autistic. But think of the reasons why people would look for these things. Normal people don't care as long as it works and is good enough for them. Because I live on this computer, every detail of how it works needs to be right. I need something that is perfect for me. I need a perfect screen, perfect keyboard, and high performance, all at the same time. Every machine with that perfect screen and perfect keyboard tends to get it mixed up with being "thin and light" and all that performance goes away. I hate that. I can get used to some deviation. A lot of my preferences are simply resistance to change. But a lot of them are because I've tried anything else (possibly for years) and I hated it. There are things that I genuinely consider better and they're practically not available in a package that works for me.

thom 2y ago

What features are you seeking that aren’t available? There are many powerful, heavy laptops. There are many 16+ inch form factors. My current laptop has dual screens! I agree it can be frustrating when the mainstream focuses on things you don’t like, but that doesn’t always exclude the things you do. I don’t like pop music but there’s more music I like now than when I was young.

LoganDark 2y ago
> What features are you seeking that aren’t available? There are many powerful, heavy laptops. There are many 16+ inch form factors. My current laptop has dual screens! Sure, there are many powerful, heavy laptops. Almost none with a HiDPI screen, though. And almost none that lack a numpad (and off-center trackpad). And almost none with half-height arrow keys, even among the ones without numpad. To find one with all three of those? You may as well not even try. I have more requirements, but nobody really cares even about the most basic ones, so there's no point in hoping for the more complex ones. Even among laptops with 4K screens they're bound to have "full-size" keyboards with a numpad. If no numpad, the arrow keys are still likely to be full-size, and there are probably dedicated Home/End/PgUp/PgDn buttons, which are always stupid compared to putting them into Fn+Arrows. I get it, portable workstations are designed to be desktops in a laptop form factor. They're not designed to be laptops. But maybe something out there should be. Maybe there should be even a single laptop on the planet that is actually designed like a premium laptop, with workstation-class power inside. There probably won't be, though - far more likely for everybody to tell me my expectations are completely unrealistic. (It'll happen any second now, probably.) > I agree it can be frustrating when the mainstream focuses on things you don’t like, but that doesn’t always exclude the things you do. The Framework Laptop 16 is one of the first Windows laptops I have ever seen that checks many of those boxes, but unfortunately it's still thin and light (and also AMD). I recently got a Apple 16" MacBook Pro and it's okay. Really many of my requirements were inherited from the Mid-2015 MBP being possibly the best machine I'd ever used, but then Apple became terrible for a while, and nobody else (not even Razer) did a good job of replicating what I liked about that machine.
- nottorp 2y ago

panstromek 2y ago

You might be an exception. I, as a developer, really want "thin and light" laptop to make it as efforless as possible to carry it around and use anywhere. I've made the mistake of buying a heavy powerful one, and I basically never carry it around, because it's just too impractical.