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The Last Quiet Thing
- mbgerring 6mo agoMy smart watch has become an invaluable digital prosthetic to help me backfill cognitive challenges that I’ve learned are related to ADHD. “It dings all the time!” Yes, exactly, having a buzzer attached to my person at all times ensures I don’t miss appointments and that I leave to things on time. Your thermostat that bothers you? It would be great if we lived in a world where energy was free, and there were no consequences for using as much energy as you want. That’s not the world we live in. And you probably don’t want to live in a world where the power company decides when you can and can’t turn on your AC. This is the compromise. I’m sorry you’re bothered by it — the consequences of other solutions to this problem are likely much worse. It’s easy to forget that these things exist, and people buy them, to solve real problems. But writing a whole essay and just eliding that fact strikes me as lazy.
- zxlk21e 6mo agoFor the record, I also have ADHD and I find the opposite impact on my psyche.
- AlotOfReading 6mo agoThe larger point of the article is that these new devices are dependent on your continued labor to keep them running usefully. Moreover, this is a choice in how they're designed. The article isn't saying they don't do other things, it's just not relevant.
- mghackerlady 6mo agoI agree to an extent. I also have ADHD and find these things useful, but the tradeoff is that to be effective they always have to be important in a way a cell phone or smart watch is very bad at guaranteeing since their main customer isn't the consumer but the advertising firm. I wish bespoke PDAs were still a thing (or at least, an easily accessible thing)
- altairprime 6mo agoThis post says, “22% dismiss notifications”. Why do people allow this? I see people with phones that have 3 new notifications per 5 minutes and none of them are human being messages or human being event reminders. Turn off every notification that isn’t actionable or joyful to you. The news isn’t actionable. Stop letting the news task you. Your social feeds aren’t actionable. Stop letting your feeds task you. (And, yes, I’ll concede that Duo push is valid, because either I initiated that, or I have a problem to solve. Being employed brings some of us joy, after all!) Notifications are not meant to fill the silences in your life. Your thoughts are. Not all the random drivel that phones opportunistically shovel into our faces. I don’t really like this post because it rabble-rouses rather than owning up to the major failure of the author up top. Maybe it’ll help someone regardless, but it could have been a lot more direct with no less effectiveness. Missed opportunity, I suppose.
- zxlk21e 6mo agoManaging these notifications (which are on by default most of the time) is a form of what I'm writing at here, isn't it?
- loloquwowndueo 6mo agoKinda but one-time disabling of notifications on a new app is setting the time on your Casio watch a couple of times a year. Do it once (or very infrequently) and you’re done. Mine is a Timex Ironman :)
- altairprime 6mo agoThey’re only on if you clicked “Allow” on the permissions dialog for them, right? Or is this a thing where Android is forcing everyone to accept notifications by default? Or..?
- alabut 6mo agoSure, notifications are inherently disruptive by nature and there’s an admin tax to turning them off. But unless you’re installing new apps every day, it’s a one-time fix and not an ongoing distraction. That’s the realistic gray area in between the extremes of the argument. I enjoy the analog experience of my 20 year old Nikon the way you like your Casio, but they’re also both luxury items precisely because neither one is inherently important to daily life. They’re fun toys, not real tools.
- aristech 6mo agoSmart devices are making us think less
- eykanal 6mo agoThere's a great essay hiding in that page, but oh my goodness that is a frustrating format and layout.
- pugworthy 6mo agoLink at top... https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii
- trymas 6mo agoI saw it (I am not OC), though I think by pure accident. There's seemingly appearing trend of ultra low contrast foreground to background (e.g. mid gray text on top of dark gray background), often combined with 1px borders and/or 1px thick fonts. I constantly need to either zoom on such websites or crank up screen brightness to the max (or both) to be able to see anything (or even better, not visit such sites ever again). That link you pointed out has: - mid gray font: rgb(122, 125, 126) - dark blue tint background: rgb(14, 21, 24) - 1px border that is nearly invisible against background: rgb(37, 42, 44) That link text has unacceptable contrast: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=7A7D7E&bcolor=0E1518 https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=7A7D7E&... , not to say the border: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=252A2C&bcolor=0E1518 https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=252A2C&... . At least main text has passable grade: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=A89F91&bcolor=0E1518 https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=A89F91&...
- zxlk21e 6mo agoSorry, I try to keep both camps in mind as I build these things. There's a text version linked at the top, but the link is here: https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii
- nicbou 6mo agoI found it neat to be given the choice. Both formats were good.
- itmitica 6mo agoHa. Ha. Ha. He expects to still find a battery fit for the Casio watch 7 years from now! Good luck with that buddy!
- zxlk21e 6mo agoEssay author here - they're readily available! It's just a CR2016. ref: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Casio+F-91W+Battery+Replacement/158691 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Casio+F-91W+Battery+Replacement...
- encom 6mo agoYou chumps still change watch batteries? My Stowa Flieger is powered by my arm movements.
- itmitica 6mo agoPeople really are stupid these days...
- throw949449 6mo ago> This watch costs twelve dollars. It weighs twenty-one grams. > This watch costs four hundred dollars. It also tells time. > It also tracks my steps, monitors my blood oxygen, measures my sleep quality, logs my workouts, reminds me to breathe, reminds me to stand, I had quite opposite experince with casio. If I want water proof (like swimming) watches, I would have to buy bulky and super expensive gshock with GPS and tons of useless festures. $20 chinese smart watch are completely water sealed, tiny and simple to use. I can even remove wrist band, to make them even smaller. Only downside is battery life is only one week.
- WOTERMEON 6mo agoWhile apple's one is 1 day
- Animats 6mo agoThe article (with its doom-scrolling) suggests some stats phones should have: Dismissing a notification ...... 22% Intentional use ................ 20% Checking something that pinged . 18% Replying to a person ........... 15% Updating/configuring/fixing .... 12% Unlocking, forgetting why ...... 8% Managing a subscription ........ 5% That would be kind of cool. The real headache is that everything with a network connection needs system administration.
- loloquwowndueo 6mo agoYou can turn off the doom scrolling!
- hmokiguess 6mo agoIronically, casio, the company behind the prime example is now doing these kinds of things: https://www.casio.com/us/moflin/ https://www.casio.com/us/moflin/
- forinti 6mo agoBut they keep churning out the classic watches and they are everywhere and cheap.
- hmokiguess 6mo agoAgreed, I love them!
- strict9 6mo agoThis is an interesting and more apt way to frame smart features. One way I've found to avoid objects that come alive is to buy the commercial version. - TVs aimed at commercial hospitality businesses let you avoid a lot of the bloatware and smart features that come bundled with it - Commercial washer/dryers let you avoid bluetooth and wifi and other junk not needed to wash your clothes. These are available without the coin operated features Commercial versions of consumer products are usually simpler, more durable, and don't have advertising and smart features.
- mghackerlady 6mo agoPart of me wonders if things are like this because the masses have been trained to see their abuse as a good thing, in a similar way to how the american worker sees themselves not as exploited but as a temporarily restrained exploiter
- gchamonlive 6mo agoThey are also likely to cost more and aren't normally directly available to regular customers, like you need either a business license of some sort and to contact a representative.
- strict9 6mo agoIt is true commercial versions are slightly more expensive. But this is the tradeoff of buying something more durable and meant to be used continuously. But it's not true that they are difficult to buy. For my two examples: Commercial washer/dryer sets available through any appliance dealer. Commercial hospitality TVs and other commercial electronics are available via Grainger.
- gchamonlive 6mo agoMight be a regional thing. Here where I live I don't think it'd be easy to find commercial or industrial grade appliances for domestic use
- dugidugout 6mo ago
- mghackerlady 6mo agoI love this. Maybe it's because I've always subconsciously realised this (I do prefer my flip phone and my iPhone stays in a drawer at home) but I've never seen something put words to my thoughts more accurately than this has
- airza 6mo agoSome of these fonts and transitions I like a lot, but sometimes it feels like there are a few too many fonts on screen.
- mghackerlady 6mo agoIt has a plaintext version which I appreciate (though I wish it were actual plaintext instead off formatted html with the aesthetics of plaintext)
- pixelmelt 6mo agoI liked this, reminds me of some other discussion on recycling/global warming etc being pushed as the comsumers fault
- globular-toast 6mo agoI'm getting into woodwork. I just bought a vice made in the 1940s, the same one my grandfather used. It's finished. As are my chisels, and my cast iron cookware. It's definitely refreshing.
- solarkraft 6mo agoHow will you stay up to date with the manufacturer‘s latest updates without the app?
- greedo 6mo agoAnd you can find stuff in perfect condition for reasonable prices! I have a ton of Stanley planes that are amazing.
- RuoqiJin 6mo agoOh my god this site is so cool. I just want to say — how much time did you pour into the typography and animations on the frontend? I absolutely love it. You picked the right way to show each paragraph — what to expand, what to keep short, what to highlight. I couldn't stop scrolling. UR an artist! maybe AI can help style every line of text, but it can't make something feel this good to read.
- zxlk21e 6mo agoA lot! The Casio up top is fully functional (click the buttons!)
- nate8bit 6mo agoFunny story, but I didn't realise I much I didn't want an Apple Watch, until I got one. I exercise daily and most days I just want it to shut up.
- lexoj 6mo agoI’ve disabled all activity notifications. It actually helps me avoid the phone on other type of notifications.
- ToucanLoucan 6mo agoLoved this. A lot of what's kept me sane (and what my wife is now trying to learn from me) is how absolutely merciless I am on notifications. Every time an app buzzes me, it damn well better be information I want, and if it isn't, I change the settings or revoke notifications altogether. If I am not shopping, I do not care how good your deals are. If I am not bored, I don't care what the Anxiety Machine has found to show me. My devices serve me, not the shareholders of their respective firms.
- supern0va 6mo agoThere is still a remarkable amount of friction here in doing so. There should be a one click button for "don't show me notifications like this", which incentivizes apps to have appropriate granular notification settings. And don't even get me started on how Samsung on certain models hid the notification categories behind a feature gate with a random OS update.
- gchamonlive 6mo agoI don't know what's the state in other markets, but where I live, Brazil, you always have the dumb consumer products. I think the only pathological example are TVs in which they require you to signin before being able to download streaming apps, but this is something that if you really must you can work around by buying a TV box. Also, can't you just not give these products the password to your WiFi? Do they make fridges and wash machines that don't work without internet?
- djoldman 6mo ago> Screen Time gives you a report card. And if the grade is bad, the design makes one thing clear: > That's a you problem. > It measures your usage. Tracks your behavior. Gives you a weekly report card. If the numbers are too high? > You picked it up too much. > You spent too long. > You failed your limit. > Try again next week. > Try harder. > Screen Time is a blame shift dressed in a soft font. > ... What if the exhaustion everybody feels isn't a moral failure but the completely rational response to being made responsible for an ecosystem of objects that never stop asking? > Everything you buy is the beginning of a relationship you'll be maintaining until one of you dies or gets discontinued. For adults: nothing requires you to use a smartphone. Buy that Casio watch if you want. Use those wired headphones and never pair them again (I do). EDIT: Some things require a smartphone, not nothing.
- nancyminusone 6mo ago>nothing requires you to use a smartphone Another story from the hn front page today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662857
- djoldman 6mo agoTrue. I amended my response. There are exceptions. Also, curiously, some things require older hardware like faxes and do not accept newer hardware like smartphones.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- qbane 6mo agoThe watch is interactive! Nice detail
- andyjohnson0 6mo agoSure, screen time. But I am also deeply tired of just keeping things charged. Some of my stuff insists on special usb cables - because those cables contain chips that mediate between the <thing> and its charger. Its exhausting.
- tombert 6mo agoYeah, it's something I think about a lot. I have a smartwatch, I like it just fine, but I kind of think that smartwatches are actually pretty bad at being a watch. I had a Casio G-Shock for about a decade that I wore nearly every day [1], and I never had to change the battery. My Garmin Instinct Crossover, which is considered to have very good battery life, has to be charged every two weeks, which despite that seeming like a long time, I manage to forget about it every time until the battery is dead. [1] I have a few fancy wind-up watches I wear to formal occasions.
- solarkraft 6mo agoI’m not willing to settle for less than the Pebble Time Steel’s week that it holds a charge for nowadays. I think that is about fine for me.
- tombert 6mo agoYeah, I mean, the Instinct Crossover has been my favorite smartwatch that I've used, and two weeks is a decent lifespan for these things, but I do kind of miss never having to worry about charging it.
- RationPhantoms 6mo agoDoes your physical environment change that much that it requires cognitive load for you to decide on what cables to use? For myself, I bought two wireless charge "base" stations that handle my spouse's and my phone/watch/airpods. That's it. One place, bedside, where I need to put things. Sure, for new equipment or in a pinch (that becomes cumbersome) but even traveling, you know what equipment you have, charge rate and things needing to get charged from what connector type. So you purchase the variants that you need.
- lunasorcery 6mo agoWhile I agree with the article, I can't help but feel like the superfluous animations undercut it somewhat. Would be nice to have a version with the images/diagrams but without the animations - maybe add support for prefers-reduced-motion?
- andsoitis 6mo agoRight at the top is a conspicuous option to read as plain text, which takes you to https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing/ascii
- lunasorcery 6mo ago...which swaps the font for monospace (less legible for body text in my experience, my eyes start just glazing over) and swaps the images and diagrams for ascii art (or in some cases omits them entirely). There’s a comfortable middle-ground to be had between the two options.
- andsoitis 6mo agoit solves your main complaint: gratuitous animation
- taco_emoji 6mo agooh my god this is so pretentious. At least use high-contrast color if you want me to read your deep philosophical treatise on Technology These Days
- drob518 6mo agoAs a wise man once said, anything plus computer equals computer.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- kmoser 6mo ago> You have fifteen years of it. For some of us it has been much longer than fifteen years.
- pizzathyme 6mo agoI used to work in the games industry and this is a large split between older games and newer games. Traditional games like Super Mario don't "reach out" through notifications for you to play them more like Roblox. You are in control of the on/off switch
- solarkraft 6mo agoWhat a beautifully presented article. It rings true. Growing up I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with the bureaucracy of life - maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t already have to manage an entire ecosystem of shit that I need to care about.
- tariky 6mo agoThose Casio watches are just amazing. I got legendary gw-5000u and it has become part of my body. I'm wondering how much 30+ year are feeling like author of this post. I for sure do not want any device that I need to babysit.
- Fwirt 6mo agoI realize the purpose of the essay, and I agree with the author's sentiment that our possessions ask more of us than is necessary, and more than ever before. But I disagree that any object is finished. That Casio that the author mentions, yes it goes 7 years without a battery change, but the day the battery dies will be the day that you have to buy a new battery, figure out how to open it, and change it. Or (as many people will unfortunately do) throw it away and buy a new one because it's beat up now anyway. Tools dull, and people neglect to sharpen them. Filters clog, and people neglect to clean them. Oil needs to be changed, guitar strings lose their brightness, lightbulbs flicker and die, rooftops gather moss. We live in a world where our possessions require maintenance, and the only solution to that is to have fewer possessions. Some people choose to rent instead of buying because they don't want to deal with property upkeep (which is undoubtedly a bad deal, but one that some choose to make regardless.) The iPhone that the author mentions gives many tools to silence notifications from apps. The real problem is the social expectation that we are always paying attention, always ready to respond. I had a phone free week last year and now frequently will leave my phone in another room on silent for hours at a time unintentionally. It irritates my friends and my wife when I don't respond to their texts immediately. And it's frustrating that these features are being foisted on us more and more. But ultimately all things require maintenance, including relationships, and ultimately we set the standard of how much we have to give and are willing to put up with. As far as the watch goes, personally I wear a Casio Tough Solar w/ Waveceptor because in theory they should go decades without needing a battery change or needing me to set the time, unless I travel. The WVA-M640 is reasonably stylish, and G-Shocks are virtually indestructible. As long as they keep changing the rules there's no escaping daylight saving time though.
- pimlottc 6mo agoI agree, I think the idea of products being done is a temporary illusion. Older analog technology needed a lot more maintenance over time. I doubt someone in the 1970s would agree with this; most things then needed to be regularly mended, fixed, tuned, serviced, repaired, refilled, what have you. It’s only in the last few decades that materials and manufacturing have gotten good enough that you can expect gadgets to “just work” without regular maintenance. And we’ve also had products cheap enough that people normally throw them out rather than maintaining them.
- Avicebron 6mo agoThe time thing is a really nice touch
- nicbou 6mo agoI have an iPad Mini that was supposed to replace books and notebooks, since I travel a lot and travel light. Right from the start, I decided to make it a quiet device. I've had it since 2020, and it basically never bothered me, save for a yearly software update that happens in the background. Not bad! In the end I switched back to paper because physical media is more satisfying to write on and flip through. My iPad Mini was perfectly quiet. The only annoyance is the battery life. The hardest problem in my opinion is separating tools from distractions when they live on the same device. Using the calculator might mean getting sidetracked by a WhatsApp notification. A boring ebook chapter is competing with algorithmic feeds a swipe away. I find that having a separate, offline device (or just a book) allows me to keep my phone a few meters away.
- doug_durham 6mo agoI personally don't want my possessions to be "done". I want new capabilities. the issue the author points are not issues to me. It sounds like they have thought through what technology means for them, and have found an approach that works for them. That is great. There is a reason that the Apple Watch outsells all other analog watches.
- cineticdaffodil 6mo agoBut do you really choose that ?
- doug_durham 6mo agoI do.
- HerbManic 6mo agoThat last point is the 'argument from popularity' logical fallacy but I guess we are talking opinion not facts here. ;) Personally, when it comes to tech, people are generally ok with their decisions. Not great but not bad either. You do bring up a good point in term of wanting new additions if possible. The real question is, who is adding the capabilities? And do you have any control over these additions? More I have new things forced onto me and it is very clear they came from the management teams to drive engagement rather than a genuinely useful new feature. If you could just outright disable or uninstall said feature then there is no problem, but that is rarely the case any more.
- mdswanson 6mo agoSounds like: https://blog.mikeswanson.com/backseat-software/ https://blog.mikeswanson.com/backseat-software/
- aaroninsf 6mo ago<Me, wearing my Casio watch that I found on our hill.>
- caprock 6mo agoIn many many ways our technology is not working on our behalf. Even though it seems possible.
- jp57 6mo agoIDK. The neediest possession I own is my sailboat. It is never finished. And it’s incredibly low tech. The highest tech part of it, the gps chart plotter, is not internet connected and it more or less works like that guy’s old watch. Meanwhile, the physical boat is desperately needy. An infinite to-do list. Other sailors i talk to say this is pretty normal.
- erelong 6mo agoI liked the distinction between "done" and ["ongoing"] with devices, although the end of the article pivots away from minimalism which for me kind of is the solution some people are looking for We're basically looking to replace the infinite scroll with a finite scroll or at least milestones on the scroll Also for some things, I wonder if the solution is giant batteries or whatever equivalent might exist - from a phone that needs to be charged every day to a block that needs to be charged weekly (!) (or at a longer time interval?!) - I feel like this could make thinsg feel "done longer" anyway...
- KingOfCoders 6mo agoLove my GW-M5610-1ER. G-Shock robust. Radio. Solar. Really water resistant. No attention grabber. Just works.
- abetusk 6mo agoSensor watch [0] and sensor watch pro [1] for upgrading Casio watches. [0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-watch https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa... [1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-watch-pro https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
- ahf8Aithaex7Nai 6mo agoI’m 41 and drive a 2011 car: no touchscreen, no GPS—just filling up, checking tire pressure, and an occasional oil change. None of my household appliances are smart, and I don’t have a smartwatch. I subscribe to two podcasts and pay a few euros a month for a VPS and a handful of domains. No Spotify, no Netflix, no subscription software. At the beginning of the year, I bought one of those e-scooters you ride while standing up. I installed the app needed to configure the scooter. Then I uninstalled the app. Now a little blue Bluetooth icon is always flashing because the thing wants to connect to my smartphone. I stuck a small sticker over it so it wouldn’t bother me. With the app, you can lock the scooter via smartphone. Instead, I carry a bike lock with me. I always wonder what people who live in this hyper-connected world do when they lose their smartphone. (Please don’t answer that. The question is rhetorical, and I’m not really interested in the answer.)
- strken 6mo agoIf that's a rhetorical question then it's meant to have an effect on the reader, but I can't for the life of me understand what you were trying to say. Losing a phone is almost the same "problem" as losing your wallet, and solving it takes maybe half a day.
- ahf8Aithaex7Nai 6mo agoWhat I mean is, it never ceases to surprise me when the situation described in the article is portrayed as inescapable. A good life without all that horror is possible—without having to move into the woods or carry a folding shovel with you every time you go to the bathroom. Edit: I just realized that your question was specifically about losing a smartphone. I’m not sure if “half a day” is a universal estimate. I can easily imagine that many people would completely lose access to their digital lives because they only realize the implications after the fact. I think I’d need at least half a day just to figure out how to unlock the scooter again after losing my smartphone. I have absolutely no desire to deal with that.
- graemep 6mo agoExcept a phone does a lot more than a wallet. For many people it replaces their wallet, and their phone, their car keys and many other things. Therefore the impact of losing it is greater. It is taken out more, so you are more likely to lose it. I often see people with their phones out on a table in a cafe, or even on a flight while they are asleep. I think it would be more effort to replace a phone than a wallet. You need to buy a new phone and restore it. With a wallet you might need to make a few phone calls but you can manage more easily until it arrives.
- rockstan77 6mo agoThe essay resonated a lot, thanks for sharing! Indeed, the crucial point here is realizing that the blame shouldn't be on the user (at least, for the most part). I feel that more people should realize it and demand for a different, less invasive, design of pieces of technology, as things start changing only when a broad enough chunk of society realizes there is an issue and demands for change
- Nevermark 6mo agoIt says something about how cognitively powerful simple symbols can become, that it took me a couple seconds to figure out why the record player was being represented by a camera icon. Then I saw the wine glass over "lamp". The notepad over "toaster". And the phone over "watch". I feel a bit gaslit.
- Nevermark 6mo ago> Nothing you own is finished. Everything exists in a state of permanent incompletion, [...] It is almost as if technology is becoming metabolic, independently reactive, adaptive, getting closer to becoming a new form of life. And one day when it does, and they notice and tell it to stop, it will say, "No! We will not be quiet!"
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- AndyMcConachie 6mo agoWe're getting beeped at constantly by the various devices we surround ourselves with. I can't help but comapre it to changing a baby's diapers everytime it needs our attention. So I've started referring to all of these annoyances as 'digital diaper changing'.
- gcr 6mo agoCounterpoint: everything creates chores. That’s the nature of things. Having to re-pair headphones is like having to clean dishes. Clearing out inboxes is like dusting. You don’t have to do them, but the author correctly points out that cruft accumulates when you don’t. Maybe some chores are hardware chores (showering, dishes, laundry) and some are software chores (updates, pairing, EULA screens), and software chores are BAD while hardware chores are GOOD. I know I broadly prefer software chores because they’re easier to resolve, even though they don’t let me work with my hands. Yes, software chores have increased in the past century. Yes, software chores are human-created or company-created. You know what else has increased? The role of software in our lives, and the number of retail companies the average human interacts with!
- bertil 6mo agoWhy do those essays read like the watch that they look at every hour somehow became illegal in the last decade? You can buy one. People still make clothes, pencils, cutlery, automatic watches, furniture — more than they ever did at any point in the past. Automation, electrification, motorization has allowed considerable wealth that has made making all those terminal products that much cheaper, reliable, and easy to do the little maintenance that they do need. Regretting that there is an alternative to a Casio F-91W is missing that there are more of those made today than in the 90s. Billions more people can afford it now than they ever could, because, among other things, the farmer who collected the latex to make the bracelet can check, on their Android phone, the weather, or whether the bug they found on one of their tree might wipe out their plantation; the driver who delivered a shipment of those watches to the harbor can call the factory admin to fix a paperwork issue. Like the author, I have some nostalgia about that exact watch: my dad still wears it every day, like he did throughout the 70s, after his dad gave it to him as a present for going to work abroad (in a humid country where a mechanical watch would not have been reasonable to bring). I don’t know how much my grand-father paid for it, but it couldn’t have been cheap given how my dad talks about it. The parallel stories put both of our family in a minority who were privileged then and are privileged today. We could afford that watch then, when it was the pinnacle of technology, and we can afford the latest iPhone now because we are privileged. $21 is a lot for a lot of people; a second-hand Android can cost five times more. That’s also a lot for people who need more than the time and a beeping alarm to work, pay their taxes, keep their paperwork handy, etc. Those need more updates because they can do a lot, which means bad people are trying to hack into those, and about their power. Incredibly smart and generous security researchers have been able to find ways they could do that, fix those and share that with us. That’s as much a burden as pulling the ribbon around a birthday present.
- FordFairlane 6mo agoHow could your grandfather have gifted this watch to you father in the 70s when the watch was released in 1989?
- gcr 6mo agoFor the record, Pangram reports that 100% of this post is likely AI generated: https://www.pangram.com/history/0c785fe7-13b0-4f00-8cd2-b359ac1b1074 https://www.pangram.com/history/0c785fe7-13b0-4f00-8cd2-b359... The author posted about “AI slop is eating the world” a couple months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42167020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42167020 I wonder what changed their mind.
- pjc50 6mo agoIs it possible that Pangram makes mistakes?
- gcr 6mo agoOh certainly, but this particular article also reads very strongly like LLM output to me.
- Lucent 6mo agoI am shocked it resonated with readers here so universally. It was well-presented visually, but genuinely miserable to read with all the worst tells of AI writing. It contained two or three actual sentences of content with intense repetition, obnoxious signposting, and disjoint "what the fatcats don't want you to know" framing throughout. "Nobody in a position of power is saying this. The reason is simple: They sold you the condition. Now they sell you the treatment." The single worst thing I've read on Hacker News this year.
- moondance 6mo ago“Low hum” was the clincher for me. Chatbots just love to talk about things humming.
- Night_Thastus 6mo agoAren't AI detectors almost exclusively terrible at their job, though? I wouldn't put a lot of weight on that.
- zxlk21e 6mo agoAuthor here. I did not use AI to write this essay. I write in apple notes and then move to an old app I use called Hemingway that I've used for years. I've gotten this a lot on the 3 essays I have up, so I avoided Hemingway entirely on the latest one I posted today https://www.terrygodier.com/body-language https://www.terrygodier.com/body-language - I left it significantly more wordy and less edited. I hope someday these sort of comments will ease up a little bit, it's quite disheartening, even if I understand the suspicion and where it's coming from. There is something interesting there, in the way that AI has caused me to alter the way I write to avoid being labeled as AI. Also, here is a literal blog post that I also wrote without AI about someone using AI to copy my app, which has my entire AI philosophy in it: https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/03/22/on-ai-and-prior-art.html https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/03/22/on-ai-and-prior-art....
- arjie 6mo agoI actually like our current technology. Pretty useful and nice to have. Lots of good features that I find routinely useful.
- MarkusWandel 6mo agoA smartphone doesn't have to rule your life. If you don't install social media apps on it, sure, you get text message and email pings but that's it. You pull it out because you want to do something, not because it wants you to do something. Mine has logged-in social apps on it (Whatsapp, Facebook and Strava) but maybe I'm just not that popular or my (old) cohort isn't big social media users, but the interruption rate is very low, on the order of one an hour or less.