finished when new is not better
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@ -19,8 +19,8 @@
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<section>
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<h2>When new is not better</h2>
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<p>
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One of the hobbies that has stuck with me for many years is photography. I've shot a few hundreds of
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film rolls, and some unaccounted amount of digital pics.
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One of the hobbies that has stuck with me for decades is photography. I've shot a few hundreds of
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film rolls, and some non-recorded amount of digital pics.
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</p>
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<p>
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It all started out when I was a slouchy teenager. One day I was diving through old cages at my parents
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@ -32,46 +32,47 @@
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</figcaption>
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<p>
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This little bad boy caught my eye and I started shooting with it for a bit. My father noticed the
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passion building up and intelligently promoted it by making sure I would have as many film rolls and
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passion building up and decided to promote it by making sure I would have as many film rolls and
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print services as I needed, within reason.
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</p>
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<p>
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This kickstarted a long passion which has walked with me for most of my life, with some high and low
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activity periods and some brief adventures into digital photography which never quite worked out into
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anything. I've ended up being an analog guy.
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Unbothered by the expense each shot meant, a long passion started, and it has walked with me for most of
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my life, with some high and low activity periods, as well as some brief adventures into digital
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photography which never built up to anything. I've ended up being an analog guy.
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</p>
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<p>
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A couple of years ago I stumbled upon that same Pentax P30n. It had been dusting away for another
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season, this time shorter and in a shelf of my own instead of my parents. I took it out one day for
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season (this time shorter) and in a shelf of my own instead of my parents. I took it out one day for
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some fun and sadly found it not working at all. I tinkered a bit with it back at home, but nothing
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seemed to fix it.
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</p>
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<p>
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Beaten down by my ignorance in guerrilla camera repairing, I brought the camera with me to a local shop
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with a technical service. They diagnosed an issue in one of the electronic components of main board, and
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provided me with a budget. The budget was not expensive at all, but it was dramatically close to the
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with a technical service. They diagnosed an issue in one of the electronic components of the main board,
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and provided me with a budget. The budget was not expensive at all, but it was dramatically close to the
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price these type of cameras will typically sell for in second hand markets nowadays. The heart told me
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to just fix it, the brain to evaluate other options.
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</p>
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<p>
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I started an interesting discussion with Sara, my favourite film dealer, about my options. At some point
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in the conversation I asked her about the nature of the fault, and she explained how electronical
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components of these cameras will always end up failing and are rather hard to fix, because the part and
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components of these cameras will always end up failing and are rather hard to fix, because the parts and
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knowledge slowly disappear from the market as the cameras grow older and put more years being
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discontinued.
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As we covered this, she pulled out a Minolta SRT-101 out of a shelf and put it into my hands.
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discontinued. As we covered this, she pulled out a Minolta SRT-101 out of a shelf and put it into my
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hands. The weight of it (almost two times that of the Pentax) caught me by surprise and I almost dropped
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it.
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</p>
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<figcaption>
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<figure>
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<img width="75%" height="auto" src="../static/minolta-srt-101.jpg" alt="">
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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She tend proceed to just say: "This doesn't happen with cameras like this one", referring to the
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unbelievably-for-its-size piece of metal that had just landed in my palms. I innocently asked why, and
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she proceeded to explain how that Minolta was purely mechanical. Not only it didn't have electronics: it
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simply didn't need electricty at all to work. It did have a small battery which would operate a
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rudimentary lightmetering system, but that was completely optional. The camera could operate fully with
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no battery in it. This was very different from my old Pentax, which would call it a day if its battery
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died.
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She then proceed to just say: "This issue doesn't happen with cameras like this one", referring to the
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unbelievably-heavy-for-its-size piece of metal that had just landed in my palms. I innocently asked why,
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and she proceeded to explain how that Minolta was purely mechanical. Not only it didn't have
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electronics: it simply didn't need electricty at all to work. It did have a small battery which would
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operate a rudimentary lightmetering system, but that was completely optional. The camera could operate
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fully without power. This was very different from my old Pentax, which would call it a day if
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its battery died.
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</p>
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<p>
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I then looked back at the Minolta in awe. I knew enough about photography to know you don't need power
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@ -84,11 +85,12 @@
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So, why was I in awe with this Minolta? Well, I knew you could take pictures without power, but I didn't
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know you could have a camera as sophisticated as the SRT-101 work fine without power. Except for the
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lack of automatic speed selection and detection of the film roll's ISO sensitivity, it had every single
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feature my father's Pentax P30n. It felt like as if I had some piece of alien technology between my
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feature my father's Pentax P30n had. It felt like I had some piece of alien technology between my
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fingers, which I had stolen from a time and place where things we couldn't even imagine were possible.
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As if someone had given me a car that didn't need gas to work.
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</p>
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<p>
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The discussion with Sara turned then swerved towards the Minolta. Sara told me about how the SRT-101 was
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The discussion with Sara then swerved towards the Minolta. Sara told me about how the SRT-101 was
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much simpler to fix than my old Pentax precisely because of the lack of electronics. Even though the
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Minolta did have some very sophisticated mechanisms in its guts, the mechanical nature of it made them
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easier to understand and patch. The lack of electronics also meant simpler parts sourcing.
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@ -97,31 +99,120 @@
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I was instantly sold on the Minolta, which has become my workhorse ever since.
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</p>
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<h3>
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When new is not better
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Old aluminium and young copper
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</h3>
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<p>
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Now that I've delivered my long rant on how I fell in love with my Minolta and it's simplicity,
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I want to jump into the lesson that I learned from this whole story. Well, actually, I don't think
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I've strictly learned it from the Minolta only, but from many other similar situations when dealing
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with human engineered things. The Minolta is probably just an incredible example.
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with human engineered things. The Minolta is probably just an incredibly clear example.
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</p>
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<p>
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The lesson is simply that new technology and features are not always better. Just like there is no
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silver bullet for complexity, there is no silver bullet for adding fancy stuff into a camera without
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sacrificing something. And I want to argue that not all of the combinations in the feature
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richness/complexity spectrum make sense.
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The lesson is simply that new technology and features are not always better than the old, previous
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stuff. Just like there is no silver bullet for complexity, there is no silver bullet for adding fancy
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stuff into a camera without sacrificing something. And I want to argue that not all of the combinations
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in the feature richness/complexity spectrum make sense.
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</p>
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<p>
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Let me focus on the example of my two cameras. Again, the features that the Pentax provides and the
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Let me focus on the example of my two cameras. Again, the features that the Pentax does provide and the
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Minolta doesn't are (1) detecting automatically the sensitivity of the film roll and (2) having an AUTO
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mode for the shutter speed, which adjusts itself to the aperture and film sentivity to get the right
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amount of light.
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mode for the shutter speed, which adjusts itself to the set film sensitivity and shutter aperture so
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that the shot gets the "right" amount of light.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Minolta doesn't detect the film itself. Instead, this is solved by... you setting it. This is done
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in a second by simply adjusting it on the same wheel where you select the shutter speed.
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Not challenging or inconvienient by any means. You don't even need to know what the number means.
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Roll says 100? Just rotate the wheel to 100.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img width="75%" src="../static/minolta-srt-101-iso-selector.png" alt="">
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</figure>
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<p>
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On the shutter speed, the Pentax has the auto mode and the Minolta doesn't. That's it. Other than that,
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both cameras are capable of a wide range of useful speeds.
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</p>
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<p>
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Those are the two features we get with the Pentax. But what have we lost? Multiple things.
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</p>
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<p>
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First of all, the inability to operate without power. Battery
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died midway through the wedding? Too bad, hope you packed another one. Then, we have the maintenance
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bit. The Pentax electronic circuits are key to operating critical elements like lightmetering or the
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shutter. If the board gets fried, the camera is unusable. And getting someone to repair this kind of
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stuff is becoming a harder to find, more expensive to pay service by the day, as demand fades away. This
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contrasts with the Minolta, because there's a lot more people familiar with the mechanical operated
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internals, which also tend to be shared across many cameras. </p>
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<p>
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So here I am, stuck with a beautiful 1968 piece of heavy metal that almost does the same that cameras
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made in the 80s and 90s, yet is much simpler to maintain. I find this a beautiful case of when new is
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not better.
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</p>
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<h3>
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When new is not better
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</h3>
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<p>
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I think a lot of us, a lot of time, confuse new with better. After all, we're progressing, aren't we?
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</p>
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<p>
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In engineering, there's a lot of good engineers that know this is not the case. This gets embodied in
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ideas such as that everything has trade-offs and there are no silver bullets. So every time someone
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comes into the room with some fancy new candy that seems to be perfect, flawless, and completely
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superior to previous technologies, a good engineer will quickly start searching for the drawbacks that
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must be hidden somewhere. Or the call to <a href="https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology"
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target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">choose (old) boring technology</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are still young (or unprofessional) engineers which will go crazy over new stuff without judging
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if it's the right tool or if it's better than what we already have. Obviously, we might try new stuff
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for fun. But at work, we should choose the right, good stuff, not the novelty.
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</p>
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<p>
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Outside of engineering, I think things are looking way more bleak. I see large chunks of society
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swallowing new tech like crazy with no critical judgment of whether what's being put in front of them is
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truly better that what they already have. And I think a lot of new tech is outright negative.
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</p>
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<p>I can see how Skype was awesome when it came out, for example, but I can't see how Instagram is a net
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positive for society widely, and for each individual that's using it individually. Electric cars? It
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feels dauntingly similar to my camera story. I've already seen several full electric and pluggable
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hybrids in my social circles see their batteries go below 70% capacity in less than five years.
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Replacements for those are super complex and crazy expensive. If only we had engines that could refuel
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for 1,000 kms in two minutes... And let's not get into how vehicles in the 60s where highly repairable
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at home, parts could be sourced from a million places and people would even have fun tinkering with them
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to change their behaviour. I've had grandpa stories on pops operating the gas of his Seat 600 with a
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guerrilla-like set up with a string coming in through the driver's window cause the gas pedal broke. How
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beautiful is that?
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</p>
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<p>
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Or videogames! 90s and early 00s game development was crowded by studios which were doing art. Beautiful
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stories, innovative experiences, pushing the boundaries of tech to get what they wanted. Working on
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their pieces to be great. For its own sake. Now we just get some kind of soft-porn version of slot
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machines, and the fucking companies that built it proudly state that they "build unforgettable games
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that delight millions of fans". Dear God.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img width="75%" src="../static/social-point-bullshit.png" alt="">
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<figcaption><a
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href="https://ifunny.co/picture/jack-megarry-oh-fuck-off-rebecca-he-did-not-say-KMp8QJ159"
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target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oh fuck of Rebecca, you don't do that</a></figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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Anyway, now I'm truly ranting.
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</p>
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<p>
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I wonder why this happens, and whether it has always happened. I want to think the problem wasn't this
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intense some decades ago. People were more skeptic on new stuff. This probably had it's downsides in
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terms of limiting adoption of great new things, but it also protected us from plenty of nasty stuff
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that's pouring out now.
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</p>
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<p>
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I guess we're in an age of such fast-paced change we're just having trouble judging everything that
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flows into our lives. The world is changing fast, and lots of tradition and culture are just not being
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able to keep up with it. I've also noticed how people have such terrible short-term memory. Again, I
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don't know if this is a modern ache as well or it's been like this since the dawn of age. But it seems
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people forget about why we do things in a certain way, and then we something new comes around, they
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jump into it without appreciating the virtues of what they already have.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<p><a href="../index.html">back to home</a></p>
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</section>
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