Chinks being chinks

    But it's not cheap to set that all up. The design work the teams that make it and develop it. None of that's cheap. And it's pretty high technology stuff. Quality materials too.


    Like if you were to try to have something manufactured in China from the get-go, it would cost you a shitload of money.


    The manufacturing cost once everything is designed and all of the molds are made and the sources source and all that, yeah then at that point the labor and stuff like that is cheap. But getting there is not cheap. Not even close to being cheap.


    Then you got the whole company that exists and the people you have to pay to design the stuff and market it and sell it.

    For 90% of people out there (at least), the cell phone is like a device that validates simple mundane tasks with a reward, which gives cheap dopamine hit.


    This happens in two major use cases.


    1. mindless no-thought games where you perform a little rudimentary task, and are rewarded with a "good job" chime & visual eye candy reward.

    2. post simple pictures on social media of mundane things, and get rewarded by people "liking" it. Same deal, dopamine hit for a "good job".


    The sad thing is this is how most people actually use "the tool" in day to day life.


    Very very few people ever use it as a critical piece of communication equipment (ie call the police, or a tow truck etc.) or use it for actual research on something important.


    It's mostly used as a toy that gives a cheap dopamine hit - and people are deeply addicted to it, now starting in infancy. Some people get withdrawal if they just go to the store for groceries - you'll see them playing with the phone while pushing the cart around, or getting their "good job" pellet while in line at the register, or while driving.


    I mean sure, it can do all kinds of things, but that's how at least 90% of the ham and eggers out there use it.


    I've been slowly going out into the world without a phone or a bank card. Just my keys, some cash and some heat. It's extremely liberating. You get engaged in going out and stop to smell the roses so to speak. You also notice how everyone out there is head down on their phone, and you start noticing how they actually use the phone (as described above). People are absolutely zombified by it.


    I eased into it - at first your gut feeling is it's very unwise to leave your home without that "critical piece of life saving communication equipment", but then you start remembering how life used to be before those fucking things became ubiquitous. The majority of my life, I got by just fine with keys and wallet.


    Whatever I hate smartphones. I love leaving them home. I love the fact that I absolutely suck at tapping out txt on a phone, because I so rarely use them. I've lost that skill. Good Riddance.


    But Slam (some of you are shouting) - what about navigation in a car ? I grew up using maps. I can read a map for a 12 hour road trip, and I can memorize each leg of it pretty easy. I've done many trips like that just by studying road maps or even google earth. It's really not very hard if you do it a few times - I have no need for some stupid little voice to tell me to make turns etc. Truth be told it's demeaning.


    The greatest benefit is you don't waste all this time fidgeting with a useless toy - you actually get shit done.

    Some of you (probably almost all of us here) remember in the 70s when those portable TVs came out. Those small brick sized black and white tube TVs that were about 7" and battery powered, signal came via the extendible antenna.


    If you think back, you'll remember there were this fucking weirdos/geeks/nerds that would go around with a portable TV everywhere, and they'd sit at park benches and watch TV in public - like they thought it was so cool. In reality, people thought these guys were fucking creeps/morons. I mean what kind of loser would go around day to day in public, watching the idiot box on the go right ?


    Well, once you ditch the cell phone, that's how you start view people playing candy crush while driving, or in line at the grocery store.

    Think you got it all wrong man!



    I would never give up my cell phone. It's got information and convenience and communication and tools all in my back pocket. It's one of the best things of modern technology.


    I get directions, maps, a nice camera, a PDF maker and reader, I can do work on Microsoft documents, it's got a shitload of battery time, it's got a flashlight, I get the weather from where I'm going, I deposit checks right into my bank account. I mean I could list things going on and on and on how great it is.


    I mean slam, you have a job where basically you're at home on a computer all day. So you're in communication and doing shit that people do on their cell phone only you're sitting at your home doing it.


    People like me. Like especially in my last job, I'm on the road all day. The phone is vital.

    I use my cell phone for research (prefer the added real estate of a PC monitor), banking, navigation, flash light, music, monitoring my blood sugar (and very soon controlling an insulin pump), calendar, calculator, alarms (waking up and reminders for various things), meditation, motivational quotes, calls and messaging, and recording JooToob videos. Probably a few other things also.

    I used to think that way when the smart phones came out - I despise them now.


    As for me, yes, I do work from a computer at home - but much of the time I'm talking to people over conference (at least 50% of the time). The computer to me has gone from being this incredible thing, to just being a part of mundane bullshit work. I revel in the time being off it, and try to minimize my time on it. Gone are the days of spending endless hours gaming off it, or doing shit on social media.


    If I game nowadays, it's old retro games, and not that much of it to be honest. I clock more time playing chess than anything else actually. I've gotten tired of it.


    The last social media I do nowadays is this site... It's my one outlet for this kind of thing nowadays and it's more than enough. I don't even check news much anymore, but I will click links people put here. I've change a lot in the last year or so in that regard, and I've grown to hate what I loved all my life. I dunno, maybe it's some weird post covid/lockdown thing going on.


    Maybe it's because I thought when it all came out, I thought it would elevate the human condition, but as far as I'm concerned, it's been co-oped. The internet used to be a free place, free of government, free of any business - it was an escape from the world - the wild west. I'm talking the days before the World Wide Web came along (back when it was terminals, modems and usenet/email. Now it's almost completely controlled by the government or the tech bros. Membership is compulsory. It's used to monitor, influence and control people - and mine them for marketing. I thought the "amazing" internet would keep evolving down the road it started on, but it's gone off the rails.


    I can't stand today's youth using all this technology on mindless task-reward games, and turning into incel porn addicts. I have nothing but contempt seeing some man bun in a restaurant taking a picture of his salad and posting it to Instagram. Maybe that's what it is - seeing the great potential of it in the 80s-90s-early 2000s, being turned upside down and morphing into the shit it is now.

    I spend most of my off time reading books to be honest, and working on skills/hobbies that don't involve computers or electronics. I write a lot more using pen and paper nowadays, and I send old fashioned letters to old friends back home. My handwriting has gotten a hell of a lot better - it's almost to the point it was before computers came around LOL.


    Maybe I'll come back around some day - but for now this is good.

    You know, a big part of it is being in this day to day routine that just involved some kind of screen for like almost every waking hour of the day. Sitting on ass, at the computer for like 16 hours a day. Work, play, whatever - almost all screen time. Then covid came and it was like 2-3 years of doing even more of it, and not being social. Then we came out of it, and it's still the fucking same shit. I guess I just had enough of it. Burned out on it - and the world's going to shit and I see all these people becoming addicted to their phones like zombies.


    I'm just fucking tired of it - and walking away from it is just great.

    I drive 1500 miles a week. My phone gets me thru that via THIS place, Pandora premium, podcasts, various websites, and last, but not LEAST, Asian midgit porn

    Well respected man about town doing the best things most conservatively

    Haha 3

    I play TrainStation2 on my phone.


    I shop on my phone.


    I bank with my phone.


    I invest with my phone.


    I make fun of liberals with my phone.


    I read the news on my phone.


    It’s a rather handy device but I still prefer a campfire with friends over it or TV.