I love y'all, but 99% of the time the answer to "who is modern computing thing X for?" is "me, it helps me":
- Before handheld GPS and mapping software I got lost constantly, and sometimes ended up in danger.
- Before calendar reminders, I ADHD'd important things in my life to the point where I hurt people I loved and myself.
- Before wikipedia and various other rapid info sources I thoughtlessly repeated a lot of "conventional wisdom" that turned out to be propaganda or just plain incorrect.
- The firehose of high quality (after lots of pruning!) COVID info from Twitter has almost certainly kept loved ones safe; I very reliably have had better threat modeling than my more offline friends in this respect.
- Those ultralight laptops that are "pointless aesthetic wankery"? Yeah, my arms are fucked from RSI.
- Super fast CPUs? Until I got my current laptop, a single compile of my work project took 45 minutes and 75% of a battery charge, which directly and severely impacted my ability to work remotely.
- "Who needs low-latency messaging, email is fine!", it's been just a few months since I was able to rescue a friend from a potentially life-threatening situation due to being accessible.
- High-resolution deep-color high-refresh-rate screens? Even aside from the benefits for photographers and other artists, I literally do not believe y'alls aesthetic commitment to eyestrain. Yes I have nostalgia for the old look too, that doesn't mean I want to use it.
- More on fast CPUs: a LOT of the performance cost of modern software (that isn't about nice screens, anyway) is about security. Process separation, SPECTRE mitigations, the list goes on and on.
This stuff is real. It's not for show. It actually helps me.
I agree there's lots of stuff we could and should do better, and old tech is fun and interesting, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.



