Programming. Telling a machine “build x feature” is nervewracking because I do not know what it’s doing and more importantly boring because it takes all the joy out of writing code. Even the LLM completions I do not use because I have seen what it has done to my coworkers’ brains. I will think about the problem. I will write the code. I will know what it does. It will be of me, not of some averaging machine.

May the LLM era end in darkness and the gnashing of teeth amen.

Fixing a car.

I’d much, much rather twist some carburetor screws or replace a fuse than have to try to troubleshoot some encrypted CANBUS acceleration sensor that is required for my suspension to work properly.

Shaving with a double edged razor rather than a cartridge one. The whole process is much more meditative and rewarding when you actually focus on the moment and take the time to do it properly. Gives a better shave too.

Ventrillo / Teamspeak > > > Discord

I prefer how Nazis were dealt with in the past

I miss physically owning software, movies, and music, not having to pay a subscription for car features like heated seats or more horsepower. I miss getting a complete game that was usually mostly glitch free on day one you got it on CD/DVD.

Socializing.

No social media to distract people. Nobody staring a phones. Nobody recording themselves for streaming.

You memorized phone numbers or wrote them down. You called or got called to meet up at some place and everyone went from there.

Photography. Film was so advanced, having a layer for each major colour, every film stock has a different feeling. The only downside was cost, but you only took a picture when you were sure it is a good picture. Now we have tons of digital garbage because we take 100 pictures at once.

I liked connecting to irc servers and setting up a znc bouncer (also an on ramp into self hosting!) way better than anything matrix and discord do.

We had mumble for voice chat and that was perfectly serviceable.

In the 90s, I felt like I knew so much about computers, both the hardware and the software, but I’ve definitely fallen off from all the improvements in the past 20 years, and I’m so Goddamn lost now. I miss those simpler times when it was more about the physical aspects of a PC and less about the technical aspects.

Japan mostly skipped PCs (outside of offices). Since their phones were ahead of the curve, a lot of stuff was designed for them. That means that a bunch of stuff is either exclusively done through some shitty mobile app, fax, or in person. There was a brief phase where PC versions did exist, but those are almost all being neglected or decommissioned now. I much prefer to do things on a PC with a nice, clear, big screen, especially if I need to use some translation tool since the text tends to expand (learning thousands of kanji for stuff like legal and taxes is hard).

I do miss physically owning media. A lot of physical media still decays, though, so not a panacea.

Software programs that were much more tested and completed before release.

Software development where we think things through, define requirements, define states, etc. before any code is committed. I do think PoCs are fine to throw something against a wall but, if it works, the proper version should go through those design phases before anyone writes a line of code. Cheap components and fast machines and networks have made people lazy which makes software worse in a number of ways quite often. No vibecoding. No AI/LLM shoved into everything. I think they can have uses in certain contexts (rephrasing questions, generating examples/docs in projects with bad/no docs, etc.), but hate how they are being shoved into everything.

An internet not run by corporations. I think a lot of people do see it through rose-tinted glasses (we still had trolls on BBS, UseNet, IRC, etc. and other bad actors), but a lot of things were much better.

Third spaces. Places where people of different backgrounds would interact in some common way. Sure, some were echo chambers just like online communities today, but many were not and let people interact together rather than just being othered to the point of fear and reviling.

I much prefer AD&D 2.5 rules to anything around today (and TSR still existing, but that ship has sailed).

I want back my Dumb TVs!! I dont want everything to be connected!

Just pop in a magnetic screwdriver bit holder and you have strong power and perfect control.

It countersinks with ease but without the risk of screwing too deep like its electric counterpart all too easily does.

I want a phone where I am able to reach the top and the bottom of the screen without shifting my grip. Also being able to comfortably store in a pocket would be nice

It grinds my gears that programs are called ‘apps’ now. On phones it was normalized immediately, so, sure. Computers run programs, though, god dammit.