3 ms·

This reminds me of how people feel when they remember high school. Like many technical people, I was picked on and had a lot of social problems. When I think ab

by vitd 12y ago

This reminds me of how people feel when they remember high school. Like many technical people, I was picked on and had a lot of social problems. When I think about those things, I feel like my life was horrible in high school. But I also had really close friends who had similar experiences and when I remember spending time with them, I think life was awesome in high school! I had a band, and we threw parties for our nerd friends, and we played technical pranks on each other. It was great! These days, we have video available instantly on demand without advertisements. But we also have crappy websites that try to throw up an interstitial ad before you can even read the content. I find the tools make it really easy for me to ignore ads and get at content that is as in-depth as I want in just about any direction (for better or worse). I'm a very cynical person overall, but I love where we are. I have a supercomputer in my pocket that can get just about any piece of data I want instantly. (I was video chatting with a friend while walking my dog the other day! And it was no big deal!) I can also play scrabble with someone I've never met in a country I'll never visit 10,000 miles away. If other people want to keep track of which celebrity slept with whom, so be it. But I'm enjoying life like never before, and it seems like most of what I can do is accessible to most people (at least here in the US).

copsarebastards 12y ago
> I'm a very cynical person overall, but I love where we are. I have a supercomputer in my pocket that can get just about any piece of data I want instantly. (I was video chatting with a friend while walking my dog the other day! And it was no big deal!) I can also play scrabble with someone I've never met in a country I'll never visit 10,000 miles away. If other people want to keep track of which celebrity slept with whom, so be it. But I'm enjoying life like never before, and it seems like most of what I can do is accessible to most people (at least here in the US). I'm not down on talking about dogs or playing scrabble, but does doing these things online instead of in person really improve your life? I mean, you're not actually learning about this person's culture by playing scrabble with them, or seeing life through their eyes. The internet enables these facile interactions between people. Again, it's fun, but it's at best equivalent to things we could do before. I play Scrabble too, but I don't think that playing it on my phone with someone 10,000 miles away is any better than playing it with my neighbor. If I couldn't play Scrabble on my phone it would be no loss to me.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  > "I mean, you're not actually learning about this person's culture by playing scrabble with them, or seeing life through their eyes... I play Scrabble too, but I don't think that playing it on my phone with someone 10,000 miles away is any better than playing it with my neighbor." I'd argue differently. Sure, me playing Scrabble with a guy from Albania isn't really imparting any specific education about Albanian culture - but does it need to? More to the point, the non-tech world that existed before didn't offer any specific education about Albanian culture, either. One of the biggest problems we face in the modern age - if not the biggest problem - is the lack of empathy. We've become a society of sociopaths - maybe we always were, but just found more and more destructive ways to manifest it. Doxxings, bomb threats, death threats, and that's just the stuff that doesn't involve shooting anyone or blowing anyone up. If playing Scrabble with a guy from Albania, even without engaging in deep philosophical or political learning, results in me having more empathy for Albanians or just a very shallow increase in understanding about their people or culture, we're already better off. Hell, just the appreciation that they are people, just like us, who play the same games as us, already moves us forward. There's a particularly toxic post further down the thread that decries "entryism" into the tech industry that is, IMO, symptomatic of the problem. Apparently people who are different but share a common interest joining a field is now an invasion of usurpers. This whole worldview rests upon something that is fundamentally xenophobic and sociopathic - as if everyone who wishes to join a group does so only for their own benefit and wishes to disenfranchise whoever is already in the group. And if playing Scrabble, or sharing animated gifs, or arguing about which sports team is best, contributes to just a tiny bit more understanding and empathy, I'll call it a win.

by vitd 12y ago

copsarebastards 12y ago

> I'm a very cynical person overall, but I love where we are. I have a supercomputer in my pocket that can get just about any piece of data I want instantly. (I was video chatting with a friend while walking my dog the other day! And it was no big deal!) I can also play scrabble with someone I've never met in a country I'll never visit 10,000 miles away. If other people want to keep track of which celebrity slept with whom, so be it. But I'm enjoying life like never before, and it seems like most of what I can do is accessible to most people (at least here in the US). I'm not down on talking about dogs or playing scrabble, but does doing these things online instead of in person really improve your life? I mean, you're not actually learning about this person's culture by playing scrabble with them, or seeing life through their eyes. The internet enables these facile interactions between people. Again, it's fun, but it's at best equivalent to things we could do before. I play Scrabble too, but I don't think that playing it on my phone with someone 10,000 miles away is any better than playing it with my neighbor. If I couldn't play Scrabble on my phone it would be no loss to me.

potatolicious 12y ago
> "I mean, you're not actually learning about this person's culture by playing scrabble with them, or seeing life through their eyes... I play Scrabble too, but I don't think that playing it on my phone with someone 10,000 miles away is any better than playing it with my neighbor." I'd argue differently. Sure, me playing Scrabble with a guy from Albania isn't really imparting any specific education about Albanian culture - but does it need to? More to the point, the non-tech world that existed before didn't offer any specific education about Albanian culture, either. One of the biggest problems we face in the modern age - if not the biggest problem - is the lack of empathy. We've become a society of sociopaths - maybe we always were, but just found more and more destructive ways to manifest it. Doxxings, bomb threats, death threats, and that's just the stuff that doesn't involve shooting anyone or blowing anyone up. If playing Scrabble with a guy from Albania, even without engaging in deep philosophical or political learning, results in me having more empathy for Albanians or just a very shallow increase in understanding about their people or culture, we're already better off. Hell, just the appreciation that they are people, just like us, who play the same games as us, already moves us forward. There's a particularly toxic post further down the thread that decries "entryism" into the tech industry that is, IMO, symptomatic of the problem. Apparently people who are different but share a common interest joining a field is now an invasion of usurpers. This whole worldview rests upon something that is fundamentally xenophobic and sociopathic - as if everyone who wishes to join a group does so only for their own benefit and wishes to disenfranchise whoever is already in the group. And if playing Scrabble, or sharing animated gifs, or arguing about which sports team is best, contributes to just a tiny bit more understanding and empathy, I'll call it a win.