Well, inflation can always solve affordability if prices stagnate. This is what made the 90s a great time to buy, right? We're pretty far behind the ball though, I think it'd be like 20 years for us to get back to that level of affordability at current nominal interest rates.
This niche is pretty well served by some of the portable gaming PC companies that have added business netbooks to their lines. GDP has the mini 8" transformer which isn't bad. The 4 just came out with ridiculous specs for such a small machine, but with poor battery to match. The 3 can be had cheaper with less powerful CPUs and better battery. I'm using a onexpro netbook 5, a really high quality 10" that compiles large rust code bases fast enough for me to be happy and also doesn't suck at all to type on, battery is fine at 5 hours with really fast charging.
I've just started running windows 11 on a transformer tablet I couldn't get Linux to fully support. I was dreading it and expected to find it so annoying that I would sell the device since all I hear is messaging like this, but I've actually been really pleasantly surprised.
I ran a powershell script I found to de-bloat it and remove ai features and telemetry, then installed chocolatey and WSL and had all my usual apps and my Nix managed dev env going inside and hour. I don't see what all these AI features are that people are complaining about, and I don't see ads or anything.
Yeah, I prefer Linux and am always weary of Microsofts tactics in open source, but what specifically makes Windows so incredibly awful?
I think because most of the stuff people complain about gets removed when you run one of the many debloat programs out there, ie; programs installing themselves, ads, popups asking you about things, onedrive, cortana, copilot, recall etc..
There's also the spying stuff, but I haven't really seen much actual analysis of the data being sent back to microsoft from a system not running all that bloat, so I don't know if it's really doing much.
Windows itself is quite nice to use, it's very stable these days and basically every piece of software and hardware will support it well.
insufferable Linux users who trade getting work done on their computer to work on their computer.
Not that changes in Windows recently have not drawn ire: Recall is a choice, recent insider installers (bellwethers for upcoming versions) get mad if you don't have an internet connection post-installation and want to demand MSA-backed logins (rather than a local account bound to an MSA account, as has been previous), and people are still sore over the change in system requirements for Windows 11.
For those who aren't familiar because they haven't kept up: after the Spectre/meltdown bugs hit a lot of people, Microsoft quietly made Windows 11 require a processor which had microcode or silicon updates to mitigate these sorts of attacks. Basically, "Your CPU must be this secure to ride". This was in the light of software based fixes causing a lot of performance downgrade. Linux users for the most part didn't care but Microsoft wanted to solve it in the next version of Windows.
Another major spot was the requirement for machines to have a 2nd generation TPM (TPMv2).
This slammed a few nerves in a few different places. For some, the TPM is a lockout chip ala NES10; For others, the TPM is a lack of control over something critical in your security chain; For people who work in security, it's a mixed bag.
At the core of a lot of the complaint is the loud voices from what I'll call "quote-un-quote power users" -- people who tinker with their windows box like it's a toy and then complain that something broke because clearly Microsoft should build software that works after it's been lobotomized. As Windows has gotten more parts and more complicated, the windows tweaker scene has filled with more script kiddies and dogma, gamers who believe that gains of 1-2fps are caused by killing some obscure service that barely starts, and paranoid folk who are certain hat J. Random Microsoft employee can just drop on in and exfiltrate any file off their machine at will. More burnt sage and woo about how this thing or that thing causes a 2 fame boost on alternate blue moons.
Interesting study! Far too early in the adoption lifecycle for any conclusions I think, especially given that the data is from Denmark which tends to be have a far less hype-driven business culture than the US going by my bit of experience working in both. Anecdotally, I've seen a couple of AI hiring freezes in the states (some from LLM integrations I've built) that I'm fairly sure will be reversed when management gets a more realistic sense of capabilities, and my general sense is that the Danes I've worked with would be far less likely to overestimate the value of these tools.
I agree on the "far too early" part. But imo we can probably say more about the impact in a year though, not 5-10 years. But it does show that some of the randomized-controlled-trials that showed large labor-force impact and productivity gains are probably only applicable to a small sub-section of the work-force.
It also looks like the second survey was sent out in June 2024 - so the data is 10 months old at this point, another reason why this it might be early.
That said, the latest round of models are the first I've started using more extensively.
The paper does address the fact that Denmark is not the US, but supposedly not that different:
"First, Danish workers have been at the forefront of Generative AI adoption, with
take-up rates comparable to those in the United States (Bick, Blandin and Deming, 2025;
Humlum and Vestergaard, 2025; RISJ, 2024).
Second, Denmark’s labor market is highly flexible, with low hiring and firing costs
and decentralized wage bargaining—similar to that of the U.S.—which allows firms and
workers to adjust hours and earnings in response to technological change (Botero et al.,
2004; Dahl, Le Maire and Munch, 2013). In particular, most workers in our sample engage
in annual negotiations with their employers, providing regular opportunities to adjust
earnings and hours in response to AI chatbot adoption during the study period."
One theme that pops out to me here is the reliance on other people being a positive experience for the author. In the software field, we tend to live pretty high up the economic value chain, which can abstract us a bit from participation in the more grassroots co-operative aspect of society. This can be alienating and warp worldview.
When I'm hitchhiking to support packrafting trips or get back to where I launched my paraglider, I have no say in who I'm going to be chatting with and feeling gratitude towards. Initially that feeling of being reliant on whoever comes my way was difficult to adjust to after the false sense of individualism that a high paying job in a bubble of similar people brings.
The benefit though is enormous. Now I stop to help anyone who's broken down on the side of the road despite the flash judgements their car or bumper stickers might bring. I'm much more aware of the value and interconnectedness of our society, and feel inspired to actively seek to contribute instead of remaining aloof. Most importantly, I realize that there's a whole lot of people out there looking to help people out at any turn, and that gives me a lot of faith.
I made similar experiences - some also through hitch hiking. One major takeaway for me was how often my "flash judgements" are wrong or unfair. I'd also say that asking for help and trusting is more of a strength one has to develop and nurture than a sign of weakness, which is what I used to believe.
That classic meme of guys never asking for driving direction, so women have to... but its not so much meme, just refusal to step out of comfort self-zone
Err yeah, mostly based in China ~2001-2022 here. Basically in China hitchhiking makes you look like a criminal because there's perfectly good long distance transport for not much and the government bans people it doesn't like from using it. Therefore, if you're thumbing you're looking suss. Sounds like a cool trip! Where'd you go to/from? Got a write-up somewhere? Highlights? I really enjoyed cycle touring in the west of China, there's some really beautiful areas.
Thank you for this. You gelled several ideas I was ruminating on over my morning tea -- my aloofness and my sneaking suspicion that self-sufficiency is isolating from society at large.
I still pull over to help motorists. You've inspired me to look for more opportunities like those. :)
I feel like this comment and the article itself together in context have kind of a sour taste for me.
Just the fact that it takes such a great effort to experience first-hand how poorer people just help each other out because nobody has money, so they help. But for a tech bro to do that they have to engage in a self-indulgent hobby and cosplay as poor like they're on Undercover Boss.
Ironically this effort to relate to other real live humans with normal incomes is only possible by indulging in the ultimate luxury, which is taking major time off of work rather than being stuck working a shit job.
This is all done with a straight face while jamming a sentence full of words like "paraglider" and "packrafting."
This whole subject is all so stereotypical tech bro in such an unappealing way.
Maybe this sounds unnecessarily bitter, but I think a valid alternate take on this is that privileged people are taking advantage of the kindness of others to get a bunch of help they don't need to help them achieve a goal that is a frivolous luxury. It's great we all get to feel warm fuzzy gratitude but it seems like the NPCs in this main character syndrome story are the people inconvenienced by the OP.
Example: asking the fire department for a place to sleep, they probably feel bad so they let OP sleep in the fire department. But as a tech startup founder and software engineer, OP could have almost certainly afforded a basic motel each night with minimal to zero planning and effort and not resorted to inconveniencing other people.
It feels a little bit like your CEO going to the food bank doesn't it? The median firefighter earns under $60k and dude who has probably outearns that salary in passive investment income is asking for a place to crash. I bet if the firefighter knew that they'd surely still be nice on the outside but they'd probably have a negative story to tell their spouse when they got home.
I completely understand that not booking a motel facilitated human connection and all that loveliness but I sense that the benefit is very one-sided. In Zuckerberg-esque style, the tech bro gets to cosplay as a human with real emotions, while on the "normie NPC" side they get to deal with a tech bro on a bicycle asking for weird shit while they're just trying to get through a shift.
I agree that availing yourself of other people's charity for the sake of gaining a novel experience is gross if they have no way to decline or you're misrepresenting your circumstances. I think you've got a poorly adjusted take on the level of imposition happening in the situations described here though.
When I thumb a ride with a boat over my shoulder, nobody has to stop, and I'm sure nobody feels too bad for the dummy who might have to walk all afternoon because he decided to huck a river without a shuttle plan. When the author crashes at a fire-house, my hunch is the chief isn't worried that if he declines then the guy who's been camping for most of his trip anyway is going to freeze to death. Maybe he's just stoked to do someone a solid and chitchat with a traveler on a slow night. These are not 'CEO at a foodbank' type situations.
If I go on a mission to yoink a boater out of a gnarly river, I never hear anyone on my S&R crew worrying over whether the subject could have afforded a guided trip instead. We're just happy to help, and hope they learn from the experience. I think people legitimately enjoy helping eachother out more than you assume here, and are probably less concerned with economic status of the recipient than you.
> Ironically this effort to relate to other real live humans with normal incomes is only possible by indulging in the ultimate luxury, which is taking major time off of work rather than being stuck working a shit job.
So what do you advocate for here? Growing the increasing cultural isolation between economic classes because those lucky enough to afford time off work should be so concerned with potentially imposing that they shamefully avoid putting themselves in situations where they could benefit from the help of someone less well off?
Wealth inequality is a huge problem, and I'm excusing the level of salt in your comment because I agree with your general theme that exploitation of that dynamic is bad. But it feels like you're attacking a harmless treatment because you're upset the disease exists in the first place.
I don't think those who are helping OP feel imposed upon, but that doesn't mean that they aren't imposed upon.
I totally agree that people are happy to help regardless of circumstance. And I'm not trying to compare OP to Jeff Bezos or anything. But I think it still feels a little too much like cosplaying, metaphorically comparing camping in a tent to being similar to being homeless.
What do I advocate for? I would advocate for people who have the means to think about how they are impacting other people and trying not to artificially introducing situations where they need help from the less fortunate, and the situation where OP asked local first responders for help finding a place to stay was a great example of a problematic interaction.
> I don't think those who are helping OP feel imposed upon, but that doesn't mean that they aren't imposed upon.
So I think what you're saying here that even if the request is not unwelcome, it may still be unfair? That's for the person offering their help to decide for themselves. I would be absolutely bewildered if someone on the internet decided I was being exploited because I stopped to help a rich guy change his tire.
> But I think it still feels a little too much like cosplaying, metaphorically comparing camping in a tent to being similar to being homeless.
I'm a pretty offline dude so I don't grasp the full context behind 'cosplaying' here, but if you're suggesting that anyone sleeping in a tent thinks they are going through the same struggle as a homeless person then that's a huge leap my friend. You can simultaneously appreciate your fortunate placement in the socioeconomic hierarchy, and participate in pursuits that will at least give you a bit of sympathy for how bad it can suck to sleep in the cold.
> What do I advocate for? I would advocate for people who have the means to think about how they are impacting other people and trying not to artificially introducing situations where they need help from the less fortunate, and the situation where OP asked local first responders for help finding a place to stay was a great example of a problematic interaction.
How is this problematic exactly? I've worked with lots of small town fire depts doing S&R and disaster relief and they are typically pretty broadly serving public servants, accustomed to fielding, and declining all sorts of odd requests. I don't think there's any risk at all asking a fire chief about places to stay is exploitation.
I totally understand why, at a shallow level, someone with money benefiting from the aid of someone without grosses you out, but my concern with your view here is that you're asking folks with means to tiptoe around society, being careful not to exploit to the point that interacting with their communities in very normal and fair ways is 'problematic'. The well off can do a lot of good in their communities, but this doesn't tend to happen if they feel isolated outside the circle of giving that other folks enjoy. Crested Butte Colorado is a great example of this, where lots of new moneyed people have moved into town, but are too timid to integrate. Instead of contributing, they add more rarely used bedrooms onto their mcmansions, and vote against affordable housing.
Rich kids flock to burning man in part because they are stoked give and receive in a communal model. I think if they realized real life is more like that then they think, they'd probably be more helpful to those around them.
Agreed. This sort of article does convey a lot about the mental world of the tech bro. Apart from the surprise at the hospitality of "normal people" it has the glassy sheen of purely procedural mind. I mean, one is not exactly swept away by the sense of adventure. It's a sort of fitness exercise.
> Now I stop to help anyone who's broken down on the side of the road
I have a certain amount of fear about doing this sort of thing. I am ashamed of that, too.
When I was in college (this was in a small city), I was walking at night by the library and I saw someone trip and fall in front of me. I asked if they were hurt and if I could help. He hobbled up and said yes, one leg was injured, but he just needed some help to get back to his car. I helped walk him four or five blocks, supporting his shoulder. In a darker bit of street, his friend tackled me to the ground and threatened to kill me with his gun. He took my wallet, ordered me not to stir from where he pushed me under a car, and they ran off. To be explicit here, the tripping and falling was fake.
The campus police took me to the student health services; my knee was banged and slightly scraped from the tackle. I related the story to the doctor and he said, "Well, you can't stop helping people." On the other hand, the cop just said, if anything like that ever happens, I didn't have to handle it myself, just call them, they were happy to come and assist anyone who might need help on campus.
I still help others when I can, but I am always cautious about my environment and assessing the circumstances
"we tend to live pretty high up the economic value chain, which can abstract us a bit from participation in the more grassroots co-operative aspect of society."
I really don't see this as being directly true. Most sorts of interactions where we would depend on others/strangers would happen outside of a job, just like all the examples you give. Maybe there's some truth to the stereotype that us IT guys are nerds and participate in fewer IRL group hobbies, which could make your statement indirectly true. However, there's still communities build around stuff like MMORPGs, FOSS, etc where people are from different backgrounds and regions. But then again, maybe I'm the odd one out as a middle class developer with everyone making more than me.
Oh yeah that's a sweeping generalization of course. My point was that the heavy reliance on paid services that usually comes with a white-collar lifestyle reduces participation in community-based mutual aid and deepens cultural divides. I figure this probably gets worse with higher income since the more services you can afford, the less you may feel you need community.
Diverse hobby groups are also a great way of attacking these divides, but may lack the aspect of vulnerability that comes from experiences like the author's.
>However, there's still communities build around stuff like MMORPGs, FOSS, etc
Both are luxury communities though. I mean, the example MMORPGs as a community, it has nothing to do with the community experience of poorer people "people helping each other to get by" mentioned
I've been doing something similar for the past couple years for several different modes of working:
1) In my campervan with Starlink internet so I don't need to set up additional screens
2) Cafes and co-working spaces when I don't mind looking like a huge dork
3) Out at trailheads/crags when I don't mind looking like an even huger dork
Some notes:
- Pocketable PC or laptop works, but Samsung phone with DEX is really the move since you don't need to tether or anything, just plug in, use Termux to SSH to your dev box (my beefy home rig over Tailscale usually) and go.
- Power demands aren't insane, phone battery is good for a few hours. Wireless charger or power splitter necessary for more.
- One-handed chording keyboard (I'm up to about 50wpm on a Twiddler) makes working in a terminal pretty straightforward. You can use the phone's screen as a mouse with this setup.
- The new XReal glasses with built-in chip are great. Pros drop soon, should be better. With Vitures or other glasses where the display is fixed, terminal work is still do-able if you're proficient with tmux or similar.
- Downside of the new integrated chip glasses is outdoor usability. They got hot in direct sun, and leak more light.
- You do look really weird using these in public since you're wearing dark glasses indoors looking around. I don't let it deter me from getting my work done but yeah, just be warned.
I've done week-long bikepacking trips taking only my phone, twiddler, XReals, and small solar panel. As long as I can hit cell for a couple hours a day I can still keep things moving with my consulting clients. I usually do this just sitting up against a tree wherever I got good signal.
Starlink mini seems like it would add more freedom to this (I like remote singletrack) but it's too heavy and power-hungry for leg or bike based trips still. We're about to try a rafting trip with a couple other outdoor-oriented digital nomads and a Starlink this season though!
I think this idea applies beyond VIM and to text-based highly configurable tooling in general.
I'm a vim/tmux guy, and have been enamored with the new workflows possible with LLMs.
From the get-go, you can do things like:
`llm "Why is this build error happening? $(cargo build 2>&1)"`
It can write itself scripts and configs to trivially accomplish integrations:
`llm "Give me a new wrapper script for launching vim that uses the name of the current tmux window for its socket. Add an executable python script to ~/lib/llm/context/vim that uses the socket with the name of the current tmux window to dump all open buffers with headers indicating file name. Add another script to ~/lib/llm/context/tmux that dumps tmux pane scrollbacks with headers indicating pane numbers."`
Now you have a really useful coding assistant with minimal work:
`llm --context=vim,tmux 'tell me why I'm getting this compilation error'`
I had it build itself a tool to apply diffs to my files, so I can do:
`llm --continue --tool-cfg=editing 'Go ahead and fix that compilation error'`
I can have it build itself new tools.
`llm --tool-cfg=editing --context=toolbuilding 'Add a new toolset in ~/lib/llm_tools for running queries on the OpenSearch database running on localhost. One tool should dump the schema. Another should allow searching. Call the toolset config opensearch.yml. Write the backing script in python. Assume no auth necessary.'`
Now I'm able to use it:
`llm --tool-cfg=opensearch 'Are there any new records added to the incidents listings since yesterday?'`
llms aren't very good at solving novel problems in large-scale code-bases, so I'm not worried about them coming for my job, but they have made the annoying part of setting up my environment much easier! You still need to know how everything works so you can debug when it misses, but the quality of my dev tooling is now top-shelf and well customized to my projects with minimal investment.
I'm confused, are you saying the TikTok ban is detrimental to US-based big tech? Seems like a forced sale is beneficial to them.
I was also under the impression we're also entering a regulatory climate where amount of regulation isn't so much decreasing (TikTok ban for example is heavy handed), but that big tech has much more involvement in forming that regulation, which is useful for moat-building.
I'm not too knowledgeable on these, it's just the general gist I've been picking up so far this year, looking for correction if I got the wrong idea.
>>>saying the TikTok ban is detrimental to US-based big tech?
Not op, but yes.
>>>Seems like a forced sale is beneficial to them.
Short term. Long term you are establishing a precedent that you can intervene and take away the power of any large tech player. If it can happen to tiktok it can happen to others.
Im not against tikton ban, but im against it in its current form , since its not for the right reason. (China plays unfair with us corps, we should reciprocate our treatment of their own in our borders. The law instead claims some US patriot act natsec prerogative bs)
The republicans have not been following the laws since they put Trump into the White House 8 years ago. Why do you think something like legality will stop them?
I've spent 400+ hours working with a Nreal glasses, Android running Termux in Samsung Dex, and a Twiddler single handed chorded keyboard which is similar to the bubby.
The future is already here if you work in a terminal. This entire set-up fits in a 1 liter dry bag, but gives me about 70% of my desktop productivity as measured by completion time on 10 leetcode medium exercises, alternating first implementation between devices. For tasks requiring less pondering, this probably drops. For tasks requiring a lot of thinking and little rote terminal work, I suspect my productivity is higher due to improved creativity when I'm outdoors. LLms are ever improving this situation, with raw typing speed becoming less important.
The learning curve is significant though. I probably invested 40 hours to reach the 40 wpm and competency with special symbols necessary for real coding work before I was at all productive.
I'm also an exceptional case for a viability study on this mode of working though. I am a very hyperactive person that thrives outside. This means that I do better work when I'm able to work from a trailhead, ripping quick laps on my mountain bike to think through hard problems. I used to do this by parking my campervan with a full desk and starlink at the trailhead. Now I find I can throw my Twiddler and glasses in my MTB pack and ride straight from my house, stopping wherever ideas flow to write and code. I'm able to provide very deep insights on areas of vast complexity for my consulting clients by working this way, where I would lack the focus to retain context and continuity of thought indoors.
Anyway, I've topped out at about 50wpm with the Twiddler, curious to see if folks are able to exceed that with the bubby and may consider a switch!
We ban e-bikes on many trails in Colorado, and I'm really glad we do:
1) MTB trails are high-maintenance. People riding more miles on heavier bikes means more wear and tear.
2) Their higher speed messes with the flow of traffic. In Colorado, I don't have to step off the trail much to let folks pass from behind. When I ride in other places that allow ebikes, it's pretty obnoxious to be letting them by.
3) They allow inexperienced folks deeper in the back-country. I had to go on a rescue with my S&R crew to assist a dehydrated e-bike rider with a dead battery 25 miles back to the trailhead. It was a very long day. People who go that far out are usually in far better shape and better prepared than the average rider.
4) They let less skilled riders on more difficult trails. This means brake bumps before the berms, trail widening, and ride-arounds appearing next to intimidating features.
No attack on you personally, I've ridden them extensively to train for downhill races and completely understand they can make the sport a lot more fun without having to grind the fitness aspect. However, myself and most other folks I come across in MTB, rescue, and trail building communities see some major systemic issues with their increased adoption.
I'm providing this perspective here because I think it's very relevant to the discussion on exoskeletons' potential impact on outdoor recreation. More hikers putting in more miles when they could get the same level of exercise staying on more beginner-friendly trails causes problems.
I do love the aspect of letting folks who would otherwise be unable to participate in these pursuits enjoy them, but I think Colorado's policy of limiting electrical assist to high-traffic beginner trails for bikes would be well adapted to hiking if these become a thing.
