How I keep my mom updated on my travel schedule with Python, Twilio, and GCal | Hacker News Reader

How I keep my mom updated on my travel schedule with Python, Twilio, and GCal

twilio.com

23 pointsrobinske4 comments

Am I the only that read this and thought, “or you can do what people have been doing for thousands of years and just have a fucking conversation with your mother every once in a while.” A relationship with a parent that includes a dynamic where the parental figure enjoys knowing where the offspring is at, normally likes having a conversation more than once a year. Pick up the phone and fucking talk to her? Pretty sure you have the technology to accomplish that. Seems easier too.

I’m all for ridiculous projects that automate things in unnecessary ways. Kind of like that girl that makes those terrible robots on YouTube. Awesome stuff. But this whole never talking to people thing is getting out of hand. Like, talk-talk. With your voice and face. This post just helps proliferate the concept of “maybe it’s okay to never hold a conversation longer than 30 seconds and consider myself socially intelligent because I have a bunch of friends on social media and watched a 5 minute youtube video on how to be socially intelligent.”

By the way, that’s not okay. In case you were wondering. Get some sun and talk to people. You have anxiety because you don’t talk to people and think computer screens are your friends.

> Am I the only that read this and thought, “or you can do what people have been doing for thousands of years and just have a fucking conversation with your mother every once in a while.”

Yes, but it's also a Twilio content marketing piece, do take it for what it's worth in that context. This crowd might create a Rube Goldberg machine to provide location status updates to loved ones, everyone else is going to use Find My Friends, an app, social media, or plain ol talking to them.

Parents love to see kids indulging their interests/hobbies. I'd be very excited if my daughter made a computer program to tell me where she was. That doesn't mean we wouldn't ever have another conversation.

When I was in high school and getting involved in student hackathons, I wrote a similar program to keep my parents updated with my whereabouts when in different cities.

Both my parents weren't technical and had very little idea what I was actually doing at these events. This was a great way to engage them & they told me the conversations we had around it helped them better understand what I was doing with my time.

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