How can we collectively fix apps/websites that are so poorly built that they take 10 minutes and 100 taps on your smartphone just to do something that could have been done in a minute? Companies put out an app/website as the only way to interface with them, you just have to deal with it. I've daydreamed about starting an agency which scouts bad apps and offers to fix them, as a sort of public service.
I've come to realize this: we are all raising money more than we admit. Whether it's from venture capital or donations to fund non-profits, money is more political than I realized because it's all about the idea of value, which is subjectively determined by humans.
The Bitwarden chrome extension just randomly stopped working for me the other day. This is after years of working flawlessly. I had to remove the extension and add it back to get it working...What a shame. Hosting a password manager isn't a game; these are people's real lives and businesses at stake.
yes. I think EdTech can be helpful for learning; but having immediate access to the rest of the internet at the same time negated whatever benefit EdTech would have had. I think that's why all the data from the EdTech companies shows a benefit in controlled studies of just their product, but the rest of our overall academic achievement data shows a net decline ever since portable screens were introduced into life and education.
Repairability and cost are key for the education market. Apple sold iPads into this space for awhile but there's been pushback and talk of going to chromebooks. Seems like they are positioning Neo for this segment as well.
"know the role and place your software fits in" yes! Probably one of the most important lessons of my career. As a junior dev starting out, I had no idea how my software fit into the company's product let alone into the entire ecosystem of what was already available and open source. Now as a senior, I see juniors making the same mistake that naturally arises out of this: needlessly doing things that have already been done or re-inventing the wheel. And now that coding ability is a cheap commodity, product development, and knowing where you fit into the ecosystem becomes the main skillset.
Substack has been a welcome alternative in this space as well. It reminds me of my experience on web blogs back in the 2000s. A real sense of community and substance.
Most parents I've met understand the internet can be a dangerous place for children but aren't sure what to do about it. Some avoid it altogether, but most give up and resign themselves to whatever happens.
What I wanted most was just to have some visibility into what my kids were experiencing, so I built LivingRoom App for iPhone and iPad. It sends occasional screenshots to parents. My hope is that when we shine a light on the online world, we will be free to use the internet as a tool for learning, creativity and connection. https://livingroomapp.com/
Hang in there. Yes it is possible; I do it every day.
I also do iOS and my current setup is: Cursor + Claude Opus 4.5.
You still need to think about how you would solve the problem as an engineer and break down the task into a right-sized chunk of work. i.e. If 4 things need to change, start with the most fundamental change which has no other dependencies.
Also it is important to manage the context window. For a new task, start a new "chat" (new agent). Stay on topic. You'll be limited to about five back-and-forths before performance starts to suffer. (cursor shows a visual indicator of this in the for of the circle/wheel icon)
For larger tasks, tap the Plan button first, and guide it to the correct architecture you are looking for. Then hit build. Review what it did. If a section of code isn't high-quality, tell Claude how to change it. If it fails, then reject the change.
It's a tool that can make you 2 - 10x more productive if you learn to use it well.
The basis of community is sacrifice. It must be. If it is all about me and only what I want, then I am alone. In any coming together, giving up some personal desires or preferences must inevitably happen.
For in choosing to gather, we are choosing a time and place. I forsake any other places I could be at that time. I give time that I could have been doing something else. More than that, I am choosing to be with people who may irritate me, or play music I don’t like, or say things I wish they hadn’t. In short, they are not me, and so I’ve got to put up with them.
In doing this, we make space for all of the benefits of community—of hearing about that movie that you’d also like to see, of learning of a new recipe you’d like to try, being amazed to hear the personal story of a friend who inspires you to be more like them. You receive encouragement to keep pursuing the highest good, as best as you can see it— And these people help you see it better. You receive real help when you need it.
The cross is at the center of the church community, and in putting it there we worship this ideal leader, who gave up everything in order to gather his people.
In my short lifetime, I have seen how we are drifting further away from this beloved community. Church attendance is down, loneliness is up. Anxiety and depression have never been higher. During the COVID era lockdowns, we experienced what the utter loss of community feels like. Friendships were broken, churches disbanded, people moved, families were tested. Some came out stronger, and some of us are still recovering.
Years before that I began to suspect that media is stealing us from each other. It’s when we spend more time on Facebook or X than socializing with real people. It’s when we’d rather watch Netflix or YouTube than call an old friend. It’s when we’d rather watch a movie that makes us feel compassion, than to feel actual compassion for our neighbor in need. When we believe the lie, we use screens for a stimulating and pointless tickling of the mind.
It’s more than our individual responsibility. This is a collective action problem. It’s when we don’t call that friend because we believe that they would rather be watching their own show, so we may as well be watching ours. It’s when you would prefer the benefits of meeting in person, but the meeting is only virtual. It’s when teens feel pressure to join social media, because everybody else is doing it. It’s when there’s nobody to play with or hang out with, because everybody else is on their own screen, doing their own thing. Last year, our family decided to rebel against this. We gave up “alone screen time” for Lent. If we were on screens, we would only do it together.
Technology allows us to bypass those near us to connect to those afar. Before screens, the automobile allowed us to do this in the physical world. We could use the new cars and highways to move to the suburbs where we have a garage, nice neighbors and no city problems. We don’t often count the social cost of car culture because it is so pervasive. The cost and effects of parking on the built environment, social isolation, declines in public health, and daily deaths from car crashes are costs we don’t often think that we all have incurred in adopting the car as a technology.
As Jesus walked by, a man on the side of the road cried out: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” When he had the option to bypass the bad part of town, he chose to walk straight through it and engage the people there.
When we unquestioningly adopt every new technology, terrible things can happen. This year, a remote jungle village got satellite internet for the first time. And now many of them are addicted to pornography and social media, which is an even bigger problem in a culture where if you don’t hunt and farm, you don’t eat. In contrast, each Amish community has leaders who decide to adopt a technology based on if it will positively or negatively impact their community. They are open to it, but they are mindful to keep the health of the community first. Had the jungle village taken this approach, their community unquestionably would be healthier.
For most of human history, being in a family and in a face-to-face community was core to our identity and was a non-negotiable requirement for survival. It is only recently we have been able to negotiate new terms with our human limitations. I hope I have helped you see that with every gain of a new technology, there is also a loss. The deception and the lie is that there is no loss. But we must count the cost. For the benefit of our communities, it is time to re-negotiate our relationship with technology.
This is a good question. Many of us work out of blind habit or to support a lifestyle we didn't consciously choose. Asking this question can lead to freedom, no matter how much money you have and no matter whether you work or not, because its a question that leads to living deliberately. Which I am all for. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/