4 ms·

This week I found a book called “let’s go all around the neighborhood” and read it to my 3 & 4 year old sons. It’s from 1982. A girl and her mother walk around

This week I found a book called “let’s go all around the neighborhood” and read it to my 3 & 4 year old sons. It’s from 1982. A girl and her mother walk around doing errands. Mailing a letter at the post office. Buying shoes at the shoe store. Playing at the park. Eating at a restaurant. Going to the library. Buying an eggbeater at the hardware store. Stopping at the fruit and vegetable stand. They interact with humans at most stops. I thought - in 2026, we can instead text, buy shoes and eggbeaters (?) online, stream / scroll content on devices, order restaurant food on DoorDash and groceries on Instacart. We’re told “you’ll no longer have to” and “now you’ll be able to” with each new technological development. But there’s always a hidden “now you’ll have to” and “you’ll no longer be able to”.

mc32 2mo ago
A bit tangential, but I think something similar to what we see here happen (time saved by modern convenience does not result in pursuit of "personal interests" other than wasting time with technology-enabled entertainment. People think UBI will unleash creativity and people will engage in their true calling in life. I don't see that happening. I see people sinking more of their lives into things that are at war for their eyeballs.
chrisco255 2mo ago
Even in 1982 you could mail a letter from your house, order shoes from a catalog, and order delivery food to your house. Admittedly, your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese for that type of delivery, but still, DoorDash mostly competes with cooking at home not with going out to restaurants (in fact, it has become more common to dine out than it was in 1982). I do lament the decline of brick-and-mortar retail somewhat, but I think it is holding on stronger than what I would have assumed in some cases.
- srj 2mo ago
  At some point UPS / FedEx became much faster. I recall ordering things in the mid 90s and it taking weeks or months to arrive. That definitely tilted shopping toward retail brick & mortar.
  - endemic 2mo ago
    "Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping"
- ViscountPenguin 2mo ago
  I've always found the concept of mailing a letter from your house really interesting. My understanding is that it's common in the US (which is why they have the little red thing on their mailboxes I think?), but I've never lived in a place where it's a thing. For such a capitalistic country, the way the US historically treated the USPS as a common civic good is really cool.
  - chrisco255 2mo ago
    USPS is run as a federally owned business. It was traditionally self sustained by postage fees not by taxes, but it is nice that it was from our country's earliest days, a key piece of infrastructure. Nowadays mailing any letter is pretty rare as most people communicate via text, email, etc but it is still absolutely possible to do so. And yes the red flag is to indicate a letter needs to be picked up for delivery.
    - rafabulsing 2mo ago
      Hah, that's very interesting to learn. I've always thought the little flag was lifted by the mailman, so that the homeowner could tell from a distance that they got mail. Cool that it's actually the other way around.
      - xeromal 2mo ago
        I think that's mainly because the mailman might not notice that the mail in your box is not your mail being left over from when he dropped it off the day before. The flag lets him know what's remaining in the box is to be delivered. He could read the addresses but they have very busy routes!
        rafabulsing 2mo ago
        Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!
  - insane_dreamer 2mo ago
- cyanregiment 2mo ago
  > your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese Subs blew my mind because for almost all my childhood it was only pizza and Chinese. I was at a friend's house and they got them for the whole family, couldn't believe it. Then in cities, at first, it was like any ethnic food. Then that crazy bastard started taking photos of people's menus.
  - jzebedee 2mo ago
    > Then that crazy bastard started taking photos of people's menus. I don't get the reference. Is this a startup origin story?
- 10729287 2mo ago
  >your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese for that type of delivery Aka the only food that's adapted to delivery, or almost.
artisinal 2mo ago
You still interact with the delivery persons of Amazon / Getir / Uber Eats. It will likely not be a very meaningful interaction as they will want to quickly move on to the next job. And thanks to globalization the delivery person sometimes doesn’t speak any languages you do. It’s not like old times where you would casually chat with the store owner.
ryandrake 2mo ago
The move from “now you’ll be able to” to “now you’ll have to” is unfortunately often corporate-driven, and I wish it could be regulated somehow. I feel like we are all in some giant lab experiment, being coerced (can't quite say "forced") to use technology for things that are much better without technology, just so technology companies can thrive.
paradox460 2mo ago
An egg beater is a manually operated mixer. Typically a crank connects to a large gear, and two smaller gears interface with it, operating two interlocking whisks. You'd crack eggs into a bowl, stick the whisk in, and turn the crank. The end result was a homogenized mix of yolk and white, good for cooking with https://i.imgur.com/3SmoqMv.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/3SmoqMv.jpeg
- BatFastard 2mo ago
  Is there not a way to flag something as an AI submission? If NOT we need it! Really needs to happen behind the scenes or this will turn into AI talking to AI.
  - paradox460 2mo ago
    I assure you I'm not an AI
tyrust 2mo ago
> But there’s always a hidden “now you’ll have to” and “you’ll no longer be able to" But you can still do all those things from the book. Don't do the things you don't want to do.
- harrall 2mo ago
  Supposedly only ~10-15% of adults use DoorDash and Instacart in the US. In 2026, most people don’t use technology to buy groceries or order food. Those people are a minority.
  - tyrust 2mo ago
    I didn't know the number was so low. That's nice to know.
  - asdff 2mo ago
    The people using it probably assume everyone else is also using it all the time. Probably explains the memes you see about it online. I discovered after installing my doorbell camera one of my neighbors gets door dash virtually every single dinner. I wonder if they cook for themselves at all.

mc32 2mo ago

A bit tangential, but I think something similar to what we see here happen (time saved by modern convenience does not result in pursuit of "personal interests" other than wasting time with technology-enabled entertainment. People think UBI will unleash creativity and people will engage in their true calling in life. I don't see that happening. I see people sinking more of their lives into things that are at war for their eyeballs.

chrisco255 2mo ago

Even in 1982 you could mail a letter from your house, order shoes from a catalog, and order delivery food to your house. Admittedly, your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese for that type of delivery, but still, DoorDash mostly competes with cooking at home not with going out to restaurants (in fact, it has become more common to dine out than it was in 1982). I do lament the decline of brick-and-mortar retail somewhat, but I think it is holding on stronger than what I would have assumed in some cases.

srj 2mo ago
At some point UPS / FedEx became much faster. I recall ordering things in the mid 90s and it taking weeks or months to arrive. That definitely tilted shopping toward retail brick & mortar.
- endemic 2mo ago
  "Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping"
ViscountPenguin 2mo ago
I've always found the concept of mailing a letter from your house really interesting. My understanding is that it's common in the US (which is why they have the little red thing on their mailboxes I think?), but I've never lived in a place where it's a thing. For such a capitalistic country, the way the US historically treated the USPS as a common civic good is really cool.
- chrisco255 2mo ago
  USPS is run as a federally owned business. It was traditionally self sustained by postage fees not by taxes, but it is nice that it was from our country's earliest days, a key piece of infrastructure. Nowadays mailing any letter is pretty rare as most people communicate via text, email, etc but it is still absolutely possible to do so. And yes the red flag is to indicate a letter needs to be picked up for delivery.
  - rafabulsing 2mo ago
    Hah, that's very interesting to learn. I've always thought the little flag was lifted by the mailman, so that the homeowner could tell from a distance that they got mail. Cool that it's actually the other way around.
    - xeromal 2mo ago
      I think that's mainly because the mailman might not notice that the mail in your box is not your mail being left over from when he dropped it off the day before. The flag lets him know what's remaining in the box is to be delivered. He could read the addresses but they have very busy routes!
      - rafabulsing 2mo ago
        Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!
- insane_dreamer 2mo ago
cyanregiment 2mo ago
> your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese Subs blew my mind because for almost all my childhood it was only pizza and Chinese. I was at a friend's house and they got them for the whole family, couldn't believe it. Then in cities, at first, it was like any ethnic food. Then that crazy bastard started taking photos of people's menus.
- jzebedee 2mo ago
  > Then that crazy bastard started taking photos of people's menus. I don't get the reference. Is this a startup origin story?
10729287 2mo ago
>your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese for that type of delivery Aka the only food that's adapted to delivery, or almost.

artisinal 2mo ago

You still interact with the delivery persons of Amazon / Getir / Uber Eats. It will likely not be a very meaningful interaction as they will want to quickly move on to the next job. And thanks to globalization the delivery person sometimes doesn’t speak any languages you do. It’s not like old times where you would casually chat with the store owner.

ryandrake 2mo ago

The move from “now you’ll be able to” to “now you’ll have to” is unfortunately often corporate-driven, and I wish it could be regulated somehow. I feel like we are all in some giant lab experiment, being coerced (can't quite say "forced") to use technology for things that are much better without technology, just so technology companies can thrive.

paradox460 2mo ago

An egg beater is a manually operated mixer. Typically a crank connects to a large gear, and two smaller gears interface with it, operating two interlocking whisks. You'd crack eggs into a bowl, stick the whisk in, and turn the crank. The end result was a homogenized mix of yolk and white, good for cooking with https://i.imgur.com/3SmoqMv.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/3SmoqMv.jpeg

BatFastard 2mo ago
Is there not a way to flag something as an AI submission? If NOT we need it! Really needs to happen behind the scenes or this will turn into AI talking to AI.
- paradox460 2mo ago
  I assure you I'm not an AI

tyrust 2mo ago

> But there’s always a hidden “now you’ll have to” and “you’ll no longer be able to" But you can still do all those things from the book. Don't do the things you don't want to do.

harrall 2mo ago
Supposedly only ~10-15% of adults use DoorDash and Instacart in the US. In 2026, most people don’t use technology to buy groceries or order food. Those people are a minority.
- tyrust 2mo ago
  I didn't know the number was so low. That's nice to know.
- asdff 2mo ago
  The people using it probably assume everyone else is also using it all the time. Probably explains the memes you see about it online. I discovered after installing my doorbell camera one of my neighbors gets door dash virtually every single dinner. I wonder if they cook for themselves at all.