React Native. I do most of the mobile technologies but something about RN rubs me the wrong way.
1) Whenever we do an analysis of which codebase to use for a new project, RN gets cut off early for multiple reasons. What's the advantage? KMP allows native-level control. Flutter/Dart was built from the ground up for mobile and multiplatform.
2) Whenever I ask someone who went with React Native, the answer tends to follow along the lines of, "I don't want to learn another language"/"It's the easiest"/"It's made by FAANG." There's some defensiveness, like "React Native can do squircles!" There's a lack of awareness of other platforms, "I can see my results immediately when modifying code with RN!"
More questioning pushes me further away. It's like the only advantage is it lets web people make apps.
3) All the darlings of RN seem to have dropped it slowly - Airbnb, Meta. I'm not a big fan of PWA apps either but at least Meta uses them to good effect.
4) Related to (2), but nearly all the RN jobs seem to pay less, and treat mobile as a cost center than profit center.
Happy to be convinced otherwise. It's on the list, but it feels like low ROI.
Self quantification. Sleep trackers, fitness trackers, bathroom scales. I am deeply uninterested in gamifying my body, and I resent attempts to do so for profit.
I've been running small SaaS businesses since 2019 with varying degrees of success (currently running a profitable one).
I never really got into JS front-end frameworks. The sheer complexity, and the idea of maintaining essentially 2 apps as a solo dev, never really appealed to me. The furthest I got into JS world was tinkering with Rails' Stimulus framework.
React - Let’s be honest about this. The primary purpose of React is not building things or rapid prototyping. Its primary purpose is to open employment to people who are otherwise less experienced or less qualified. I got tired of working with less qualified people, because less qualified people tend to be less capable of problem solving, less capable of rapid innovation, and more entitled.
Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) - It’s a massive pain in the ass. CDP is a backdoor into a web browser by opening a web server in a browser tab and providing an extensive API to remote access a web page as a third party. It’s very powerful but… WTF, so much ceremony. As someone who wants to write test automation on sites/pages I am authorized to test I would prefer to just open a web socket connection and go in through the front door. It’s so much more simple, but you don’t get an API to access all the dev tools panels.
Short videos, stories, etc. I refuse getting addicted to them. Terrifying watching everyone around me consuming the stuff like we are in a crack house.
I never looked at short videos and couldn't understand how my friends and family would open their phones given even a minute of quiet time for these things. I viewed some Youtube shorts (maybe the least effective short video provider in terms of content and the recommendation algorithm?) and was shocked at how easy it was to burn time looking at crap. The experience really opened my eyes about how a person can be pulled into endless viewing.
I think the crack house comparison is entirely appropriate. The brain is weird . . .
To add to that: vertical videos in general. Especially when they're picked up by news sites or mainstream media and then displayed with blurred bars on the sides.
- Shorts/Reels (do I need to give a reason for this)(I happily "choose" a good 30 min+ fails/funny/wins compilation and watch it rather than playing with a slot machine).
- Instagram (I am not a photographer/artist, then why should I convey everything to my friends in Audiovisual way?)(even Facebook was better).
1) The power cuts out frequently and the autogate can't be manually opened. There's a battery and a switch that opens it but if the power is out for a few hours, I can't go home.
2) We have lights that trigger when the alarm rings. We can't turn off the button or it won't work. There's some glitch with many of them where the neighbor's lights burn out faster. Some of the neighbors just removed them as there's little benefit.
3) Smart lights are a little burden on the router, especially without a hub. Tàoo many and things start glitching. The best ones end up being a kind of mesh, which is why they're so expensive.
4) Our smart door isn't properly waterproof. Rain and humidity makes the fingerprint sensor glitch out. While we can open it with a key or card, the whole purpose is not bringing one. One alternative is using the free app that unlocks the door, but it means I have to watch an ad if I go home.
I like ereaders, but I installed koreader on mine and use the wifi only when I transfer new books (when I’m too lazy to get the laptop and a usb cable).
Electric vehicles. I don't have a problem with the concept but similar to the above, you can be held hostage with a change in software. And the second hand market is a joke.
Nearly all web frameworks, especially for app development.
All social media, cryptocurrency, and most tech pushed by big tech to general consumers.
- Proprietary messaging apps like WhatsApps, Facebook Messenger etc. I think it's ridiculous that some people/countries are practically held hostage by them.
- Electron/Javascript based apps
- Chromium (Blink) and Webkit based browsers
- GTK4/libadwaita
- node.js
- And well, less of on refusal to adopt, but more like a refusal to acknowledge their value: bloated/modern web frameworks like React. I honestly can't think of a single useful website that absolutely cannot work without a bloated framework, that I'd actually need in my daily life, which couldn't have been achieved by a regular old-school website or a native app. Like literally, there's not a single actually useful website that I visit regularly, that I can look at and go "oh, this site (or the service they offer) absolutely cannot work without a modern bloated JS framework".
React and similar frameworks are for the developer, not the user. But since it seems you don't use large scale UI based applications, you don't see a need for them.
React and similar frameworks are more for the employer than the developer. A capable developer can execute without them, but employers need them to vastly widen candidate selection without investing in training.
I'm a developer too (well, technically DevOps and a hobby dev), and I can't think of any place where it's actually needed, where a traditional app can't do the job.
Of course, nothing is strictly needed, you could write your code in assembly. But just as we built higher abstractions on that, so too do people do so for UI code. If you haven't written much UI code, then I can see why you think it's not useful, but it doesn't mean that it's not, for those who do.
This is an odd take that might seem privileged, but: sales or coupons. Digital or physical.
If a company is offering a discount, sale, coupon, etc., they've done the math and determined the reduction in revenue to them is offset by your increased likelihood to purchase, or share in your mind. (Algorithmic) discounts are a technology in the sense that they're part of modern data science-driven consumerism. Just like going to a casino, the house is always going to win. So, I offer no mind share to these. I've bought many games from Steam sales I don't play, for an innocuous example.
I'm not going to throw out a coupon if it's thrust into my hand (e.g. Wonderville, a gaming bar I love in Brooklyn hands out wooden drink tickets and one is in my wallet.)
Linux. I think it's necessary to abandon Windows, but to quote from a Q&A on distrowatch:
> Linux distributions try to provide everything you need in one central collection (called a repository). Windows and macOS users are accustomed to browsing the web, looking for applications, clicking a download link, and running an installer. With Linux we skip all of that. We can open the software centre (or "app store") and find just about anything we need.
Well, I hate that. We were accustomed to downloading some indie dev's binary, but now every platform has an app store, and this is apparently Linux's fault for starting the trend. I don't like package managers, I don't like auto-updates (I'll update next year maybe, is how I want it). I don't like installations and dependencies. In my dream world there could be, like, five or even six standard libraries, and they're all backward-compatible and you keep them up to date manually. I don't like file permissions, Sudo, and the multi-user paradigm. (It's just my computer and permissions shouldn't be a question.) I don't like the folder structure (/usr/, /bin/, /usr/bin/, /etc/). I don't like that there's a home folder: everywhere on my computer should be my home folder.
I'm investigating flatpaks to see if they can soothe my griping. But the first thing I see when I visit flathub is "Flathub is the app store for Linux". That's unpleasant. Who runs it, why? (Who runs any repo, and why?) The site lags. You can apparently set up your own flatpak repo, but isn't it allowed to just provide users with a flatpak file of your own program for download from your site? Just as if it was a more or less portable binary that you could unzip into whatever folder, and run it with high probability of it working, like how things used to be on Windows and Classic Mac. If flatpaks can do that, maybe I'll welcome Linux (back) into my life. Or maybe I want to use ReactOS really so I can pretend it's still the year 2000.
Perhaps you'll like AppImages instead: they're standalone binary bundles, that any indie dev can host on their website (or have it on their github or whatever). You don't need to "install" it via some store or something, don't need to worry about dependencies - just download a single file and run it.
Take a Damm Small Linux. Package manager (apt) optional.
I do think a lot of what you are rejecting (automatic updates, centralised package signing, permissions) are solutions to security problems that you might actually have.
React Native. I do most of the mobile technologies but something about RN rubs me the wrong way.
1) Whenever we do an analysis of which codebase to use for a new project, RN gets cut off early for multiple reasons. What's the advantage? KMP allows native-level control. Flutter/Dart was built from the ground up for mobile and multiplatform.
2) Whenever I ask someone who went with React Native, the answer tends to follow along the lines of, "I don't want to learn another language"/"It's the easiest"/"It's made by FAANG." There's some defensiveness, like "React Native can do squircles!" There's a lack of awareness of other platforms, "I can see my results immediately when modifying code with RN!"
More questioning pushes me further away. It's like the only advantage is it lets web people make apps.
3) All the darlings of RN seem to have dropped it slowly - Airbnb, Meta. I'm not a big fan of PWA apps either but at least Meta uses them to good effect.
4) Related to (2), but nearly all the RN jobs seem to pay less, and treat mobile as a cost center than profit center.
Happy to be convinced otherwise. It's on the list, but it feels like low ROI.
Self quantification. Sleep trackers, fitness trackers, bathroom scales. I am deeply uninterested in gamifying my body, and I resent attempts to do so for profit.
I've been running small SaaS businesses since 2019 with varying degrees of success (currently running a profitable one).
I never really got into JS front-end frameworks. The sheer complexity, and the idea of maintaining essentially 2 apps as a solo dev, never really appealed to me. The furthest I got into JS world was tinkering with Rails' Stimulus framework.
https://stimulus.hotwired.dev/
what kind of stack do you use instead?
React - Let’s be honest about this. The primary purpose of React is not building things or rapid prototyping. Its primary purpose is to open employment to people who are otherwise less experienced or less qualified. I got tired of working with less qualified people, because less qualified people tend to be less capable of problem solving, less capable of rapid innovation, and more entitled.
Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) - It’s a massive pain in the ass. CDP is a backdoor into a web browser by opening a web server in a browser tab and providing an extensive API to remote access a web page as a third party. It’s very powerful but… WTF, so much ceremony. As someone who wants to write test automation on sites/pages I am authorized to test I would prefer to just open a web socket connection and go in through the front door. It’s so much more simple, but you don’t get an API to access all the dev tools panels.
Short videos, stories, etc. I refuse getting addicted to them. Terrifying watching everyone around me consuming the stuff like we are in a crack house.
I never looked at short videos and couldn't understand how my friends and family would open their phones given even a minute of quiet time for these things. I viewed some Youtube shorts (maybe the least effective short video provider in terms of content and the recommendation algorithm?) and was shocked at how easy it was to burn time looking at crap. The experience really opened my eyes about how a person can be pulled into endless viewing.
I think the crack house comparison is entirely appropriate. The brain is weird . . .
To add to that: vertical videos in general. Especially when they're picked up by news sites or mainstream media and then displayed with blurred bars on the sides.
You'd get addicted to short stories?
I don't know if you've got kids, but they're like crack cocaine for young people.
I was just making a joke about short stories as in the written word, which have been around for millennia, not short form video.
Stories as in Instagram Stories, Youtube Shorts, whatever they are called in all platforms. Short video or video-like content.
- Shorts/Reels (do I need to give a reason for this)(I happily "choose" a good 30 min+ fails/funny/wins compilation and watch it rather than playing with a slot machine). - Instagram (I am not a photographer/artist, then why should I convey everything to my friends in Audiovisual way?)(even Facebook was better).
Voice control. Give me a keyboard and a mouse or track pad any day. I can't even articulate a reason, I just don't like it.
> I can't even articulate
That seems like a good enough reason.
IoT. I have no interest in home appliances with fancy screen, internet connectivity, apps, and any of that other nonsense.
I’m also pretty skeptical of the whole smart home market. A lot of it seems like technology in search of a problem… and it also seems very buggy.
I have a few of these. They came with the house.
1) The power cuts out frequently and the autogate can't be manually opened. There's a battery and a switch that opens it but if the power is out for a few hours, I can't go home.
2) We have lights that trigger when the alarm rings. We can't turn off the button or it won't work. There's some glitch with many of them where the neighbor's lights burn out faster. Some of the neighbors just removed them as there's little benefit.
3) Smart lights are a little burden on the router, especially without a hub. Tàoo many and things start glitching. The best ones end up being a kind of mesh, which is why they're so expensive.
4) Our smart door isn't properly waterproof. Rain and humidity makes the fingerprint sensor glitch out. While we can open it with a key or card, the whole purpose is not bringing one. One alternative is using the free app that unlocks the door, but it means I have to watch an ad if I go home.
I like ereaders, but I installed koreader on mine and use the wifi only when I transfer new books (when I’m too lazy to get the laptop and a usb cable).
Dont forget about the IoT botnets too.
Anything "smart". Can't avoid TVs unfortunately.
Electric vehicles. I don't have a problem with the concept but similar to the above, you can be held hostage with a change in software. And the second hand market is a joke.
Nearly all web frameworks, especially for app development.
All social media, cryptocurrency, and most tech pushed by big tech to general consumers.
I generally don't buy secondhand cars, but the low prices and low maintenance required for EVs makes the secondhand ones seem like a good deal.
This
- Proprietary messaging apps like WhatsApps, Facebook Messenger etc. I think it's ridiculous that some people/countries are practically held hostage by them.
- Electron/Javascript based apps
- Chromium (Blink) and Webkit based browsers
- GTK4/libadwaita
- node.js
- And well, less of on refusal to adopt, but more like a refusal to acknowledge their value: bloated/modern web frameworks like React. I honestly can't think of a single useful website that absolutely cannot work without a bloated framework, that I'd actually need in my daily life, which couldn't have been achieved by a regular old-school website or a native app. Like literally, there's not a single actually useful website that I visit regularly, that I can look at and go "oh, this site (or the service they offer) absolutely cannot work without a modern bloated JS framework".
React and similar frameworks are for the developer, not the user. But since it seems you don't use large scale UI based applications, you don't see a need for them.
React and similar frameworks are more for the employer than the developer. A capable developer can execute without them, but employers need them to vastly widen candidate selection without investing in training.
I'm a developer too (well, technically DevOps and a hobby dev), and I can't think of any place where it's actually needed, where a traditional app can't do the job.
Of course, nothing is strictly needed, you could write your code in assembly. But just as we built higher abstractions on that, so too do people do so for UI code. If you haven't written much UI code, then I can see why you think it's not useful, but it doesn't mean that it's not, for those who do.
- smart watches / rings
- shorts / TikTok
- Instagram / X / Facebook etc.
- the Apple ecosystem
- TV
- tablets
Using my phone to read the web.
Any new editor, airplanes, tablets, smart watches (as mentioned by catstor), VR, e-readers (though these are actually very good, mine just died).
It's not any particular reason, they don't seem to improve my life much? The e-reader was best for sure.
For me it's: Smart Watch, AI image generators, cryptocurrencies, auto payments of bills.
That would be smart devices: TVs, fridges, teapots, watches, phones
Bluetooth. Ewww.
This is an odd take that might seem privileged, but: sales or coupons. Digital or physical.
If a company is offering a discount, sale, coupon, etc., they've done the math and determined the reduction in revenue to them is offset by your increased likelihood to purchase, or share in your mind. (Algorithmic) discounts are a technology in the sense that they're part of modern data science-driven consumerism. Just like going to a casino, the house is always going to win. So, I offer no mind share to these. I've bought many games from Steam sales I don't play, for an innocuous example.
I'm not going to throw out a coupon if it's thrust into my hand (e.g. Wonderville, a gaming bar I love in Brooklyn hands out wooden drink tickets and one is in my wallet.)
Linux. I think it's necessary to abandon Windows, but to quote from a Q&A on distrowatch:
> Linux distributions try to provide everything you need in one central collection (called a repository). Windows and macOS users are accustomed to browsing the web, looking for applications, clicking a download link, and running an installer. With Linux we skip all of that. We can open the software centre (or "app store") and find just about anything we need.
Well, I hate that. We were accustomed to downloading some indie dev's binary, but now every platform has an app store, and this is apparently Linux's fault for starting the trend. I don't like package managers, I don't like auto-updates (I'll update next year maybe, is how I want it). I don't like installations and dependencies. In my dream world there could be, like, five or even six standard libraries, and they're all backward-compatible and you keep them up to date manually. I don't like file permissions, Sudo, and the multi-user paradigm. (It's just my computer and permissions shouldn't be a question.) I don't like the folder structure (/usr/, /bin/, /usr/bin/, /etc/). I don't like that there's a home folder: everywhere on my computer should be my home folder.
I'm investigating flatpaks to see if they can soothe my griping. But the first thing I see when I visit flathub is "Flathub is the app store for Linux". That's unpleasant. Who runs it, why? (Who runs any repo, and why?) The site lags. You can apparently set up your own flatpak repo, but isn't it allowed to just provide users with a flatpak file of your own program for download from your site? Just as if it was a more or less portable binary that you could unzip into whatever folder, and run it with high probability of it working, like how things used to be on Windows and Classic Mac. If flatpaks can do that, maybe I'll welcome Linux (back) into my life. Or maybe I want to use ReactOS really so I can pretend it's still the year 2000.
Perhaps you'll like AppImages instead: they're standalone binary bundles, that any indie dev can host on their website (or have it on their github or whatever). You don't need to "install" it via some store or something, don't need to worry about dependencies - just download a single file and run it.
Also, if you hate sudo and messing with permissions etc, there's EasyOS - in fact it addresses most of the complaints you've raised, so probably worth checking out: https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.htm...
Right, but flatpak de-duplicates dependencies, while appimages are all going to be unnecessarily huge, I think/assume?
Hey, EasyOS might be OK. Top tip.
Take a Damm Small Linux. Package manager (apt) optional.
I do think a lot of what you are rejecting (automatic updates, centralised package signing, permissions) are solutions to security problems that you might actually have.
I don't think security problems should cause these systemic problems. Damn Small, you say? I'll check it out.
The useless empty talk technique of capital rendering
Ai for anything but translations