If you haven’t used free Over-the-air TV these days you might be surprised that most cities have a few dozen channels of live TV right now. If your in a large metro area get the simplest of cheapest TV antennas, plug it into your TV, and do a channel scan. You’ll be surprised how many channels there are now.
If you’re in suburbs or rural, you’ll still likely have quite a few but may need a more substantial antenna.
Ah okay, thats a different problem, with different a solution.
On its surface you’re expressing you don’t have permissions to just enjoy the moment, that there is some other pressing issue that you should be putting your attention to instead.
Instead what you have is a budgeting problem. Except our scarce resource isn’t money, but time. There are only so many hours in a day, and if you let it, an infinite number of tasks to complete. Knowing that you can only do so much in a day, and only a fraction of that time can be spent on “productive” activities. You have to give time to yourself or you’ll go nuts. So first, decide how much time of the day (outside of work and sleep) you are going to put to “productive” activities. That number can’t simply be all the waking hours that aren’t sleeping, working, or eating. Be realistic. Then along with that budget time to slack off where your only responsibility is no responsibility. If you are daydreaming during that slack off time, you know there’s nothing else you should be doing. The thing you should be doing is slacking off.
More pragmatically, instead of having a daily time budget, have a weekly one. You can work yourself hard one day if it means allowing yourself a longer continuous slack off time later in the week.
Has anyone else felt this way about not being in the moment when doing things?
I kind of have the opposite. Sometimes I have to fight myself from losing myself to the moment, exploring all the permutations of thought of what is happening in the moment, what its implications are, what else would compliment it or sour it, how others around me are experiencing it (or ignorant of it), the visceral experience, the light/texture/smell/temperature, the infinite possibilities of the circumstances of the moment and every branch the next second could follow. Then I realize I’ve been daydreaming again, and have to drag myself back to the toned-down reality of what life chore I have to do next.
You mention several things in your live that distract you (doomscrolling, steamdeck, etc). Those offer someone else’s prepackaged experiences for you to consume, which is their purpose. Distraction. There’s nothing wrong with those, as long as they aren’t consuming you all the time.
Can I ask if you allow yourself to daydream?
I don’t drink alcohol or use tobacco/nicotine in any forms. As to why, I simply don’t enjoy the experience of either. When I was a teenager I was offered and tried a cigarette. I hated the tobacco smoke flavor, it made my lungs hurt, and I didn’t like headrush feeling. For alcohol, I drank a few times as a young adult and even got drunk a couple of times. I didn’t particularly enjoy that mental and physical experience either. Even after that I drank beer a few times socially, but realized I wasn’t doing it because I liked it, but to “fit in” or impress other people.
While still in my early 20’s, I realized that if the only way those people would like me or associate with me was because I would drink, I didn’t need them in my life. I stopped drinking entirely, and I’ll admit at the beginning I did get socially pressured, but when I didn’t relent, no one ever got upset with me nor did I ever lose any friendships because I didn’t want to drink. I made it clear then, as I do today, that I don’t care if anyone else wants to drink, even if that drinking is around me. I have no judgment on them for what they choose to consume (as long as they aren’t hurting others in doing so). I will even buy alcohol for people I know that drink as gifts, because I know it is something they enjoy and thats what gifts are for. I have a decent collection of unopened bourbon bottles that I’ve never even tasted. I can get some uncommon bottles now and then. I’ve never had someone complain about getting a nice bottle of bourbon.
I will say I don’t really like hanging out with smokers in confined spaces, but that has nothing to do with a judgment about their personal choices. I just don’t like my clothing and hair smelling like cigarette smoke after hanging out with them.
GenX BTW.
I generally hold the same negative opinion of Leto as you, but was surprised that his acting in House of Gucci was pretty decent.
I liked him a lot in “Spanglish” and “Reign Over Me.”
I don’t need long distance correction, but do need reading glasses distance correction. I got bifocals with no correction on top and my reading prescription on the bottom. When I was choosing types of bifocals, I was given a non-perscription demo progressives to try and hated them. I was then informed by the optometrist that there are a whole bunch of different lens styles to choose from besides progressives for bifocals. I chose “Segmented Ds” which look like this:
These do exactly what I want. If I’m in a meeting and have my laptop or notepad (reading distance) close to me, and at the other end of the room a whiteboard or projection screen, I pop out my bifocals and they work perfectly. I can see both the distance (no prescription for me) and the close reading distance without having to lift my glasses off my face each time. I do not give a shit if someone sees that they are bifocals. I’m using them to help me be the best version of myself, not make a damn fashion statement. I have not one time had anyone say anything negative about them, and indeed had a few people ask how to order the same thing for themselves. If I’m doing pure close work, I don’t use the bifocals and just use regular full field reading glasses.
I don’t think its misinterpreted. I do the same thing with one of these to get stuck on food bits out:
I’m not sure how this could “destroy the pan” considering the stainless steel links have a Brinell hardness of 217 and the grey cast iron (the pan’s metal) has a Brinell hardness of 235, the pan will scratch the stainless steel links before the stainless steel links scratches the pan.
After that I wash out the path with liquid dish soap, then put the pan on the inductive stove to bring it up to boil away any remaining water on the pan.
Have you seen prices drop since companies have laid off all the human help? If human interaction is such a botique concession how did business manage until now and where did their savings go?
A portion to expensive human salaries. Another portion so naked profit taking on the part of these businesses.
To the salaries angle, look at nations which still have massively large populations with low labor costs. You’ll see that work is done by dozens or hundreds of low paid humans instead of automation. There is a tipping point where it becomes cheaper to invest in automation rather than paying a human. In places like Europe, USA, and Japan we’re way past that tipping point and automation (whether thats robots, computer automation, or AI) becomes the significantly cheaper option to getting something done/manufactured. China is quickly joining our ranks too. While they still have a large population, the cost of labor in China is reaching middle class levels and we’re starting to see the same thing there were automation is replacing human workers.
Why are prices staying the same (if we’re lucky) or still rising, services are staying the same (if we’re lucky) or getting worse,
Because in our economic system a small amount of inflation is necessary. A deflationary status in our economy would actually be devastating. However, when the economy overheats we get significant inflation.
companies are taking all these cost-saving measures like sweeping layoffs, and yet the biggest companies are generally posting record profits?
I don’t disagree with this.
I understand you’re probably playing devil’s advocate but devils aren’t entitled to an attorney.
I am, but if people are asking these question non-rhetorically, then they actually want to know why these things happen. I’m willing to provide the understanding I’m aware of, most of which isn’t obvious without prior study. Understanding why the current state exists is the starting point for affecting change, if they want change.
No worries
Neither of us can control them.
Why do we need to? Those are the responsibility of those residents.
As for your example of the washing machines, I’ve got news for you and it’s not good - they’re both shit, the above cited example isn’t an example of the washing machines purchased by our Grandparents which were built like brick shithouses. The unit costing $1000 more isn’t on par with the models and designs of yesteryear, not nearly.
Citation needed. How are they not good repairable washers?
Add to this the shrinking pool of home appliances which are manufactured without tied-in computerization, another factor which will shorten their service life considerably (replacement chips will be in short supply once the model is discontinued, forcing owners to source a small pool of qualified repairmen who in turn will be unable to source parts or be forced to cannibalize other broken units).
The Speedqueen has none of those things so I’m not sure why you’re bringing that up as a rebuttal to my Speedqueen example.
I seriously can’t believe that your example of high quality appliance is Speed Queen sold at Best Buy, is it the one that you bought, or could you really not think of a better one on the spot?
This is a really odd question you’re asking because how you asked it destroys your own argument. “or could you really not think of a better one on the spot?” suggests you know of a good washer equal to the units of the past, but your argument above is that better washers don’t exist. So which is your argument, that there are the good washers like those in the past that I simply haven’t cited, or that no better washers exist and they are all enshitified?
I agree with Hawke, I think people are against the use of technology in such a way that it exploits workers and customers, not fundamentally against the technology itself.
I agree with that statement too. Where Hawke and I are disagreeing is I believe Self Driving cars can be used to exploit workers and customers. We already have Waymo robot taxi cabs that are displacing human drivers.
GenAI being used in missile guidance makes zero sense - the technology is not applicable there, because you need precision and reliability. Normal AI, sure.
I specifically said “not Gen AI”.
It’s up to me?
Your actions are up to you, yes. Whether you choose to interact or not in your water utilities or regulation boards is up to you.
I am not in control of every single city or county especially in the states. More than 60% of the states do not even have basic reading skills. Now you just being silly.
Getting involved and taking action locally is silly? I have no idea what your literacy comment has to do with anything we’re talking about.
Have a good one.
Thanks, you too. If you’d like to join me at my co-op annual water meeting, its in July. Hit me up and we’ll go together. If you were a member, you could even run for the board yourself and directly affect water policy in the county. You won’t be able to vote for board members because you’re not a member of the co-op like I am, but you can see how it works and where we have a voice.
This. The only example where I pick a robot over a human is self checkout… and that’s cuz it’s faster due to there only be 1 queue for several checkouts. Not because it saves me money.
You choose to go to a store that has outsourced human labor to machines. Even if you only occasionally use the self-checkout yourself, many other shoppers use the self-checkout. The prices you’re paying for your purchases are lower across the board because they don’t have to pay for as many cashiers.
Are there no stores (for the particular goods you’re buying in this example) that have zero self-checkout? If there are others that employee humans exclusively to check out, then your philosophy should have you shopping only at those and not at stores that have replaced humans with automation. I should warn you, those stores are probably more expensive to shop at.
Inversely; How comfortable would you be in a society where you couldn’t access another human if you couldn’t afford one? Because that’s where prioritizing profit over people is going to lead us.
I’d argue we’re already there in many aspects of our society.
The fucking normal amount.
The “normal amount” keeps going up especially with the cost of human labor. So the “normal amount” would actually be a “large increased amount” for the same service with no additional benefits.
Some of it is literally garbage straight out of the box. Despite this, prices have not only not decreased, but normalized at best. Even worse, it’s become difficult to source products which aren’t worthless pieces of shit which cannot be repaired, at least not without considerable research - some of it also cannot be repaired without cannibalizing copies of the same device because no replacement parts have been manufactured.
The good ones can still be had, but they are massively more expensive, so people don’t buy them. Lets take washing machines. This is generally the same design, quality, and longevity out grandparents bought 40 years ago. This is a basic unit without any fancy features:
Here’s the modern enshitified basic unit like the kind you’re referring to that won’t last:
People ‘vote with their wallets’ inasmuch as people on a raft in the ocean vote for beef instead of fish for supper. There is none available, of course they’re going to eat the fucking fish.
Speedqueen exists! What brand of washer do you own? Do you walk the walk and did you spend over $1000+ more for a unit that does the exact same job, but is repairable will last 20 or 30 years or did you buy the cheap one?
That’s my thought on both the book and the movie. Perhaps its not the book’s fault. There was so much hype surrounding it when it came out I thought it must be awesome. Instead I found the same simply story I’d read in a dozen other books, except this one drowning in a sea of 80s and 90s pop culture references. If it was a simply summer read without the hype I likely would have liked it for what it was.
I had similar disappointment when I finally read Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”. I read that same type of story a dozen times in other much better books but everyone was saying it was a groundbreaking book.