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I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference. This doesn’t

I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference. This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me, so I plan carefully before settling in to watch something. Also, not owning a device to play games and waste hours was another conscious decision I made a while ago. Kicking the TV out of your bedroom is a neat trick that works for many. I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche. After a few years, all of this comes naturally to me, but when I talk to people, the first thing they’re amazed by is how I manage to live like this.

FollowingTheDao 2y ago
Can you keep going? Because if you met me I am sure you would ask; "How do you live like that?"
- rednafi 2y ago
  Depends on what you mean by “keep going.” Does a decade and a half mean I became successful? Then yeah. I come from a middle-class SEA family, where education and frugality are bolted into our DNA, even when we can afford nice things. So it’s a bit easier for me. However, I see my left-brained Western friends struggle with this quite a lot. Many self-diagnose as having ADHD, need therapy, and can’t seem to win the fight against all the nonsense large corporations throw at us. So I understand that it’s probably difficult.
  - FollowingTheDao 2y ago
    I mean can you keep going. Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly. As for things that do not seem like folly — well, there can be no question about their smallness! Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity; the second, frugality; the third, refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'. For only he that pities is truly able to be brave; Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse. Only he that refuses to be foremost of all things Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers. At present your bravery is not based on pity, nor your profusion on frugality, nor your vanguard on your rear; and this is death. But pity cannot fight without conquering or guard without saving. Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed.
    - chrisweekly 2y ago
      attribution? (please and thanks)
      - david_allison 2y ago
        Three Treasures (in Taoism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)#Tao_Te_Ching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)#Tao_T...
        itronitron 2y ago
        " the wise will laugh at me, but the foolish will understand "
        FollowingTheDao 2y ago
        The wise will downvote me, but the foolish will certainly upvote. :)
    - apsurd 2y ago
      the hell are you on about
      - FollowingTheDao 2y ago
        The winds of heaven, blowing over the holes of the earth.
Thorrez 2y ago
>I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference. Amazon Prime is a tricky one: bundle shopping deals with streaming video. Youtube is also tricky: it's free. But despite having Amazon Prime and Youtube, I almost never watch movies, TV, play games, or doomscroll? How? I had a baby. No more time for any for any of that. Once he's old enough to want to watch movies or play games, then maybe I'll watch/play some with him, but he's too young currently.
- rednafi 2y ago
  Watching movies with your baby is spending quality time in my book. Doomscrolling, buying random shit you don’t need, not having the headspace to think clearly are the issues we were talking about.
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    My son's pediatrician said no screens until he's 2 years old.
- Carrok 2y ago
  It is pretty easy to not subscribe to a service run by an objectively evil oligarch, but maybe that's just me. I'd rather support local retailers and not receive a fraud product.
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    My point wasn't that it's difficult to not subscribe to Amazon Prime. That would be pretty easy, because all I would lose is a discount. My point was that my intention is to subscribe to a discount on shopping, but a video streaming service comes along for the ride.
    - Carrok 2y ago
      I'm saying don't subscribe to either product offering from, again, an objectively evil oligarch.
rpastuszak 2y ago
> This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me [...] A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video. None of them will crash after 30s of playback because your postcode changed for a week, because you have an ad blocker installed, or because you just plugged in an external display and some DRM magic kicked in. Just find the file, download it and double click.
- Aurornis 2y ago
  > A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video. I can never understand these claims as anything other than mental gymnastics. There is no way you can convince me that it’s better UX to navigate torrent sites, take all the time to download the file, hope it’s a good copy, and launch it in VLC. Most of us have something like an Apple TV or other streaming box plugged into a TV. I can power it on and get to the show I want in seconds. It picks up where I left off. I don’t have to worry about quality or subtitles or torrents. > Just find the file, download it and double click. The idea of just finding torrents, waiting for them to download, then fiddling with everything to get it in my TV is in no way a superior UX to the streaming services. I think these claims are just attempts to justify piracy as being superior UX, but it doesn’t make sense.
  - snailmailstare 2y ago
    I wouldn't call VLC friendly UI, but it is the same UI I used when Netflix the DVD service began and the same UI I taught family members. When someone shows me Netflix, every year or two, I have no idea what I am looking at.
  - MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
    It helps if the search is integrated into the torrent client (qbittorrent) and if the computer is plugged into the tv (long hdmi cable). The UX benefit is that I figure out what I want to watch by browsing the web, then pick a download (lots of seeds, decent size), and before long I can start watching. Usually I queue up a few options in case my mood changes. It doesn't matter which service owns the rights, or which devices I'm using, or anything. I can watch the downloaded content whenever I want, forever. No trailers or unskippable notices. I'd pay money for this flexibility if I could.
Full_Clark 2y ago
>I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche. n=2 is a poor sample set to develop strong inferences, but I definitely see the upside to this behaviour. Once I made a conscious decision to become one of those 'low-information voters' you hear about, my mental health improved notably and my screen time dropped by a few hours per week.

FollowingTheDao 2y ago

Can you keep going? Because if you met me I am sure you would ask; "How do you live like that?"

rednafi 2y ago
Depends on what you mean by “keep going.” Does a decade and a half mean I became successful? Then yeah. I come from a middle-class SEA family, where education and frugality are bolted into our DNA, even when we can afford nice things. So it’s a bit easier for me. However, I see my left-brained Western friends struggle with this quite a lot. Many self-diagnose as having ADHD, need therapy, and can’t seem to win the fight against all the nonsense large corporations throw at us. So I understand that it’s probably difficult.
- FollowingTheDao 2y ago
  I mean can you keep going. Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly. As for things that do not seem like folly — well, there can be no question about their smallness! Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity; the second, frugality; the third, refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'. For only he that pities is truly able to be brave; Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse. Only he that refuses to be foremost of all things Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers. At present your bravery is not based on pity, nor your profusion on frugality, nor your vanguard on your rear; and this is death. But pity cannot fight without conquering or guard without saving. Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed.
  - chrisweekly 2y ago
    attribution? (please and thanks)
    - david_allison 2y ago
      Three Treasures (in Taoism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)#Tao_Te_Ching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)#Tao_T...
      - itronitron 2y ago
        " the wise will laugh at me, but the foolish will understand "
        FollowingTheDao 2y ago
        The wise will downvote me, but the foolish will certainly upvote. :)
  - apsurd 2y ago
    the hell are you on about
    - FollowingTheDao 2y ago
      The winds of heaven, blowing over the holes of the earth.

Thorrez 2y ago

>I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference. Amazon Prime is a tricky one: bundle shopping deals with streaming video. Youtube is also tricky: it's free. But despite having Amazon Prime and Youtube, I almost never watch movies, TV, play games, or doomscroll? How? I had a baby. No more time for any for any of that. Once he's old enough to want to watch movies or play games, then maybe I'll watch/play some with him, but he's too young currently.

rednafi 2y ago
Watching movies with your baby is spending quality time in my book. Doomscrolling, buying random shit you don’t need, not having the headspace to think clearly are the issues we were talking about.
- Thorrez 2y ago
  My son's pediatrician said no screens until he's 2 years old.
Carrok 2y ago
It is pretty easy to not subscribe to a service run by an objectively evil oligarch, but maybe that's just me. I'd rather support local retailers and not receive a fraud product.
- Thorrez 2y ago
  My point wasn't that it's difficult to not subscribe to Amazon Prime. That would be pretty easy, because all I would lose is a discount. My point was that my intention is to subscribe to a discount on shopping, but a video streaming service comes along for the ride.
  - Carrok 2y ago
    I'm saying don't subscribe to either product offering from, again, an objectively evil oligarch.

rpastuszak 2y ago

> This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me [...] A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video. None of them will crash after 30s of playback because your postcode changed for a week, because you have an ad blocker installed, or because you just plugged in an external display and some DRM magic kicked in. Just find the file, download it and double click.

Aurornis 2y ago
> A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video. I can never understand these claims as anything other than mental gymnastics. There is no way you can convince me that it’s better UX to navigate torrent sites, take all the time to download the file, hope it’s a good copy, and launch it in VLC. Most of us have something like an Apple TV or other streaming box plugged into a TV. I can power it on and get to the show I want in seconds. It picks up where I left off. I don’t have to worry about quality or subtitles or torrents. > Just find the file, download it and double click. The idea of just finding torrents, waiting for them to download, then fiddling with everything to get it in my TV is in no way a superior UX to the streaming services. I think these claims are just attempts to justify piracy as being superior UX, but it doesn’t make sense.
- snailmailstare 2y ago
  I wouldn't call VLC friendly UI, but it is the same UI I used when Netflix the DVD service began and the same UI I taught family members. When someone shows me Netflix, every year or two, I have no idea what I am looking at.
- MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  It helps if the search is integrated into the torrent client (qbittorrent) and if the computer is plugged into the tv (long hdmi cable). The UX benefit is that I figure out what I want to watch by browsing the web, then pick a download (lots of seeds, decent size), and before long I can start watching. Usually I queue up a few options in case my mood changes. It doesn't matter which service owns the rights, or which devices I'm using, or anything. I can watch the downloaded content whenever I want, forever. No trailers or unskippable notices. I'd pay money for this flexibility if I could.

Full_Clark 2y ago

>I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche. n=2 is a poor sample set to develop strong inferences, but I definitely see the upside to this behaviour. Once I made a conscious decision to become one of those 'low-information voters' you hear about, my mental health improved notably and my screen time dropped by a few hours per week.