Being a Canadian, this particular incident gave me so much mistrust in our government. It woke me up to the fact that I am not being told the truth but that I am being manipulated. I haven’t trusted a single word from officials since then.
In their defense, I wasn’t auto-upgraded. I just couldn’t add computers anymore. I hovered around 99 for a while, removing old computers, but one day I had to open up my wallet.
Requiring a credit card for a trial is fine, as long as you don’t convert automatically to a paying membership. And if you do, please send me a reminder a week before at least.
I’m not sure it qualifies as a dark pattern, but I was really frustrated by the Logmein pricing. I was paying a relatively expensive amount for my 100 computers package. Once I went over that threshold I had to convert to the 500 computers package which cost 4x was I was paying. That was true even if I had 101 computers and not 499. I ended up upgrading with a negotiated price but still don’t understand why it’s not a price per computer.
This is one of my favorite read in a while. I love how it frames the question of burnout and addresses the ills of modern life. As far as my personal experience goes, I am unhappy when I do the same thing for too long. I believe that we aren’t creatures designed to repeat the same tasks over and over. People talking about the grass always being greener on the other side are right in the sense that we enjoy a change of scenery. I have to admit that I am a fan of capitalism and I believe it’s the best socio-economic model we have. However, my main critique is that it’s a theft of joy for the artisans in us. The introduction of the assembly line and the fact that workers do not feel the same pride in the final product is a sad conclusion. I get so much pride and joy out of making things. I wouldn’t be able to be the one inserting a bearing into the wheel of the car because I wouldn’t get the same pride.
As a business owner, I really don’t like how dependent I am on Google services. If I loose my Google Ads, I’m in trouble. I prefer the more decentralized world where one private entity does not have life or death impact on my business.
CPI will never been perfect. They could even break it down into 3 categories:
1. Poor man’s CPI: ramen, rent & public transit
2. Middle class’s CPI: house, beef & cars
3. Rich man’s CPI: penthouse, luxury goods & sports teams
It doesn’t work like that though. If I buy BTC at 60k then someone is selling BTC at the same price. The fiat is just moving from one account to the next. The people getting cash-rich from crypto are either spending it (on lambos) or putting it back into the stock market.
Sorry but not even close. Think about the fact that 80% of the world population lives on so little compared to America/Europe. If 100% of the planet follows your lifestyle advice, we would still be in trouble. It’s sad but the only "positive" thing right now about climate change is that most of the world is too poor to leave a big imprint.
The nice thing is that you can do both! You can up your savings while taking on a bigger than ever mortgage. A real example for someone who earns 50k per year would be to have 20k in a savings account while getting a 500k mortgage. You’d be taking advantage of the system and making more money with your debt than with your savings. That’s assuming inflation on the price of your house at 4-5% while paying 1-2% interest rate.
I can’t help but say that even WordPress can be served as a "static site" if caching is done right. And maybe the fact that I use an ad-blocker is saving a few watts per week.
I am nowhere near as educated as the author about how the macroeconomics work but I wonder if he isn’t short-sighted. I mean that in the sense that currently there isn’t any lack of depositors and the banks do not rely on money markets. However, we are probably at peak savings right as people are restarting to spend. On top of that, with the level of debt Americans have taken on (mostly mortgages), if the rates rise ever so slightly, they will have to dig into their savings to make ends meet and it might trigger a new cycle. We also should not underestimate what could happen if inflation persists and "inflation mentality" sets in. People will put their cash to use as fast as possible and buy real assets, equities and even supplies. This would further reduce deposits.
It really makes you wonder how scalable those rates are if that is true. In the sense that if the pool of depositors grow, it will become increasingly hard to find borrowers with this profile. There is simply a limit on the number of such speculators.
I’ve always pictured branding like a flywheel. Advertising adds momentum. If you cut spending it will take a while before you see it slow down. And by the time you notice a real slow down it takes months to build it back up.
That’s because you pay those taxes in exchange for services from your municipality. And let’s admit it, it’s stupid that your payment is proportional to the value of your house. How is the city budget correlated with house values?
I have been due to replace my battery on my 2019 MBP (I know, yeah…). The problem is not the price (which is steep) but the fact that I have to leave « my girlfriend » at the shop for 3-4 days. This new design is a game-changer.
This is an interesting (and ethical) way for Wikimedia to finance their operations. I have to say I find it funny that back in the days teachers told us not to use Wikipedia and now we’ll have large corporations paying to train their algos using their data. And then those algos will decide whether you get a loan or not, your insurance premiums, and much more.
We are talking about fractions, not crystaline structures. The problem is that people forget their high school math very quickly when they stop using it. Many of us keep using it everyday.
It really does have to be restored. This story sounds straight out of a CSI episode. But when you deal with the “real” police, you’re in for a world of disappointment.
I find this kind of post very interesting. The key takeaways from my point of view is that none of these projects actually created value. Most of them didn’t solve a problem that other software hadn’t already solved. The most interesting one I think was the appartment notitication one. Especially that today there is such a race if you want to find a good and affordable appartment. It’s just too bad the author wasn’t able to create something simple for this. At the end of the day, you have to try 10 ideas to get one off the ground. But you also have to give them a serious shot, which doesn’t seem to have been the case here. You often will have to invest actual money to get your idea out there and popular. Unless it’s a one in a million that will go viral on its own.
Thank you for your answer. I was asking the question in good faith.
Coming from an engineering and entrepreneurial background, I can't help but recognize myself in your comment. I do feel like we should have done a "war effort" to improve our healthcare system and even our public buildings. I can agree it's not an easy task, but it seems 1000 times more productive than locking people at home. Plus, it would ready us for the next epidemic or pandemic. Now, if we get hit again, we're doing lockdowns again.
As for protecting myself versus protecting others, I do understand the logic. I haven't been living under a rock for the past 18 months. However, what I hear is that vaccinated people don't get very sick from Covid. If that is true, why do I need to be vaccinated as well? Aren't they already protected? Let's put this simply, my grand-mother is 84 years old and vaccinated. If I end up giving her Covid she will most-likely be fine. And even if I were vaccinated I could still catch and transmit Covid.
Once all at-risk people are vaccinated, haven't we "won" the war on Covid?
I have been looking for one number. Maybe someone can help me. What is the mortality rate for unvaxxed healthy adults between the age of 18 and 50? I can’t help but be dubious that this group needs vaccination.