I don’t know if it’s only me but while growing up I was pretty excited about the future and technology advances but life back then was simple. Small things used to give lot of happiness, even though we did not had so many luxuries but was very content with what we had and that hope that future will be bright was enough to motivate you . However now thinking about the future makes me sad and how most of us (or may be just me) forgot that we have one life and it’s so precious.
Similar thought here. I don't know if it was the era or being relatively poor, but the big change in my life was giftgiving. You used to get a book or sweater or doodad and be wowed and thankful. As an adult it seems everyone has Amazon and everything they want, so what's to do but trade boring gift cards we don't need. How exciting.
I will say one thing I noticed and dislike about myself is how impatient and 'privileged' I've become. I mean, we used to order from Sears or Penney's catalogues as a kid and that stuff took weeks to arrive, and we were thrilled. Today it's all instant gratification. Amazon is a day late and we(I) act perturbed.
I like to watch this Louis CK clip, it really puts me back in place...for a while.
My mom was born in 1939 in France. She told me that she used to get an orange as her Christmas gift (nothing else). She would save her orange for a few days, looking forward to eating it. On the other hand her one brother would eat all of his immediately. I have an orange for lunch every day at work, partly because I like them but also to remind myself of this story and of how relatively good most of us have it these days.
I had some stories from my grandfather (born in 1910) usually around Christmas time, where he'd ... I guess it was complaining - complain we were too spoiled as kids. "When I was your age, I got an orange for Christmas, and I was happy with it!". It really put a damper on things, and... I can't help it that I'm growing up 60+ years later in an era and world where we get oranges cheap at a grocery store. It's just 'normal' - not my fault if he didn't have that 60 years earlier. And yeah, we do have it great in many ways today (and... not so great in others).
I regularly ask my grandmother (born 1918) about the past and how she experienced this and that.
Overall I think she had a relatively simple, but comfortable life. She remembers getting electricity in the 1940s. Before that, they had plenty other ways to provide lighting and heat, so it didn't matter much. The family wasn't rich, but never lacked anything.
Later in her life things got more busy with more travel, vacations, especially after retiring in the 1970s.
She's still very busy with activities every day, but the last couple of years with the pandemic and restrictions was tough. Now that things are getting back to normal, she's really relieved. Even a simple thing like going to the hair-salon makes her day.
Environmental devastation, at least in terms of footprint, is far worse, both in terms of space and noise. Water and processes are cleaner though. The weather is just fucked.
The glue for all communities is need. The less you need others, the less you need to compromise for others. It is a double edged sword though, on one hand you want the resiliency and security a tribe provides in order to make the gamble that can lead you to succeed, but on the other hand, individuals always have a goal of freedom and power for themselves so if they succeed they will no longer need the tribe (or at least as much), and hence there is no longer incentive to compromise for it.
> It's just 'normal' - not my fault if he didn't have that 60 years earlier.
I guess that's just societal progress, which is not only a good thing, but a great thing!
I read a while ago but can't find the source - the average person these days eats better than the King of France did a few hundred years ago... I think about that a lot
This was the case for my parents as well, and despite growing up in an age of abundance, there was still an orange in my stocking every Christmas morning. It's a nice tradition I think.
We don't really have it good though, simply because the universe doesn't work like that. There's no such thing as a free lunch and you're paying a price for all this "goodness".
> As an adult it seems everyone has Amazon and everything they want, so what's to do but trade boring gift cards we don't need. How exciting.
From one terrible gift-giver to another: Once you are no longer poor and the people around you also aren't poor and can afford the things they want, gift-giving becomes about knowing the person. What have they always wanted or needed, but wouldn't get for themselves?
When you distill gifts to a monetary exchange they lose all value. Know the person, show you care, share that you thought about them, that you put effort into their gift. Then gifts become magical and amazing once more.
Your mom appreciates a $600 weekend getaway with her son/daughter infinitely more than a $600 fancy bluetooth speaker.
As Ted Lasso said in a recent episode – the effort is the gift.
Good ideas. I think I like your 'experience' idea. I'm so fixated on things and everyone has 'things.' But experiences, like a spa treatment, massage, or getaway as you say, are things people are probably less likely to do for themselves. Especially if they involve yourself.
Not telling you like I'm teaching you something, I'm literally writing my line of thoughts after reading what you wrote - so thanks.
A relatively low cost but personally impactful gift is giving custom artwork. There are a lot of artists on Etsy and Reddit who make a living off of doing commissioned work.
You give them a reference picture or two, some details and you'll get amazing work back. My wife really likes Studio Ghibli movies and I got a poster done of our kids holding Totoro's hands. Friends looking like super heroes. Folks pets. Honestly really fun gifts to give.
You just have to put some effort into it. I keep an open mind to gifts all year long. Whenever I see something I think suits someone, I buy it and toss it in a big bin for the next birthday or Christmas. Sometimes things sit in the bin for eleven months but every person I give to is surprised by the gift and loves it.
I recently got a hard to find graphics card(GeForce 3080) and at work and friends got mad at me for not immediately opening it up and putting it in my computer.
I waited like 6+ months for it(to not pay scalper) and then when I had it. I waited another 1 or 2 weeks before installing it.
I've developed a weird habit of not opening things I've ordered for many days or even weeks.
Its not really intentional or I'm not fighting back any urges.
It does feel a bit therapeutic and it helps keep perspective on importance or value of things.
I'd definitely recommend people trying to disconnect the instant gratification for things that aren't immediately needed.
That’s true . That’s why I always get stuff which is relatively cheap but gives me immense happiness, like buying stickers, old books , tattoos (water)
Everyone is so relatively wealthy compared to even 20 years ago that it's hard to imagine what they lack that you could give them, but you view this massive increase in wealth as being itself the problem? ;)
Absolutely right, in aggregate we have never been this prosperous. Inequality is a good thing because it shows people take risks. "poverty" is no longer about not meeting your basic needs, it's about seeing your neighbor drive a Tesla.
You were a kid, everything seems magical then. As we get older the magic disappears. Happens to every generation. See for example how many people are nostalgic of (objectively worse) 80s, in countries that were much poorer than are today and had much worse living conditions.
I'm not sure that's completely true at least for me. There's multiple instances of new technology I first tried as an adult that seemed amazing, I didn't get online till my mid twenties and that was an amazing experience. Switching from my 8MHz Atari ST to an 800MHz PC happened at the same time and suddenly getting access to all these new games and new software was magical, I marvelled at all the little graphical and audio details games suddenly had. I got my first camcorder and digital cameras as an adult and thought they were great.
The magic started to wear off later when technology started feeling hostile. Instead of me being in charge, my technology started doing things against my wishes and I had no power to stop it. There's been this increasing sense of technology constantly pushing and clawing at my boundaries, trying to spy on my and report back from me unless I check a dozen options and even then it may not be enough. Technology updating itself when its inconvenient, or breaking itself, or installing stuff I didn't ask for, want or consent to.
There's also the fact that this creepy boundary pushing technology is feeling more and more mandatory and a built in part of society, so its becoming harder to avoid and the sense that 90% of people have just shrugged given up.
But even now in my 40s I occasionally find a gadget or bit of software that seems magical, so I don't think for me its an age thing.
I'm sure lots of people disagree and have a very different experience, but for me that's a big part of why technology has lost its magic.
The latest craze for 2021 kids is "pop it" game. We are just too old to be amazed by that. Do you think these kids will prefer living in 2050, working in a cubicle, facing midlife crisis, even though they are living through a pandemic now?
As for your view on technology, while many of us here share it, let's not forget how small HN crowd in general population is. Like you said, people shrugged, but most probably never even thought about it.
Depression is up, house prices to income ratios are much worse, education and healthcare costs are both way up while quality (measured by test scores and healthy life years) has barely changed, social connections and number of friends are down...
Just because you can now afford 10 computers rather than 1 (who would even want 10?) does not mean you are better off.
The 80's where pretty much fucked economically in a large part of the world. And the way Reagan fixed the American made things worse due to increased interest rates for countries highly indebted
Also when you are young you don’t know how much the world can suck.
There is also the fact that when you are young the world is your oyster, so many possibilities ahead. Then you get old, you are now over the hill, your life has pass you by, and you don’t really have much to look forward to except deteriorating health and death.
But it’s not all solely age dependent IMO. I think a 90s teen would be happier - or at least more excited - than today’s. While as a stupid kid you likely won’t pay attention to politics, at least not back then when all that stuff was “hidden” in stuffy newspapers, but you probably felt the more hopeful “end of the Cold War” zeitgeist. Things were looking up. Consumer computer technology was advancing at a neck breaking speed. Video games became mainstream and midway through turned 3D. The Internet and the Information Age with all its (overly) optimistic promises were upon us - while the negative effects never crossed our minds. We were all (supposedly) headed into an amazing future.
Today … I personally can’t find anything to be excited about.
I can never tell if this is just me or we have grown more jaded as a culture (maybe both). My drive for personal side projects has dwindled to nothing in the last two years. Also my optimism and enthusiasm around projects like self-driving cars, longevity drugs, and space-flight is gone as well. It is probably part of aging and a general shift in our society.
I am experiencing renewed optimism from materials technology lately. Graphene production is on the rise and the applications are huge. Mycelium is touted as the next plastic. Newer engineered woods like CLT hold a lot of promise as they get deployed into increasingly large projects. There are all kinds of smaller innovations with waterproofing, adhesives and insulation that are gradually being deployed and learned about by builders.
For my part, I took the step into ordering some kit for cardboard crafting just now. Modern wood glues(I am getting Elmer's Max) are unbelievably strong, and a pure shellac finish brushed on will add some rigidity and waterproofing which could be further enhanced through hydrophobic coatings. Corrugated cardboard itself is a limited material, but it's so easy to get and to work with - my first project will simply be to build a small workbench, and then I'll go from there. I have several ideas already planned.
Maybe you could try some new activities (with a low barrier to trying out), and find something that you never thought you'd like. We get into life-routines and they insulate us from discovering.
I lost all interest in TV programming, the kids got me a Roku and I already forgot it's plugged-in. My list of YTube channel bookmarks has grown by leaps since Covid. History is big!
Maybe I’m easily excited, but totally normal things still throw me.
For example, I’ve flown dozens of times but it’s still flipping amazing that we figured out how to get huge tubes of metal to FLY. At 30,000 feet in the air! And at 500 mph, too! It’s absolutely bananas.
Or that I can just pick up my phone and chat with a friend in Argentina, who’s like 8,000+ miles away, no problem.
Although I probably take that for granted more than flying. If it weren’t for having to deal with TSA at 6 am, I’d probably be like a giddy kid each time I fly.
When life is simpler it’s easier to parse hardships that are inherent and unavoidable, versus those that are foisted upon you by society. In our modern and bewildering world, it is much harder to differentiate and thus more depressing and painful.
