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all 124 comments

[–]gilbatron 89 points90 points  (7 children)

bluetooth noise cancelling headphones make public transport and commuting bearable without destroying my ears by pushing the volume to the max in order to drown the noise around me.

[–]TonyTheSwisher 29 points30 points  (5 children)

Headphones in general have had a lot of improvements.

I recently purchased some bone conducting headphones that allow you to keep your ear completely open, they work great and weren't super expensive.

[–]gitmo_vacation 9 points10 points  (4 children)

OT but could you share the make and model? I’ve never heard of this and am curious.

[–]TonyTheSwisher 15 points16 points  (0 children)

AfterShokz Aeropex are the model I bought. They cost $160 but the company makes cheaper models with lower battery life and less features.

[–]Galax-e 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Not OP, but Aftershokz is the main brand I've heard of.

[–]The_Noble_Lie 4 points5 points  (1 child)

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[–]Sinity 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe, but bluetooth audio itself is inexplicably janky considering abandonment of headphone jacks. Pairing headphones is a pain. Using them with several devices is a pain. Latency is atrocious - which is solved by aptX LL... except, while there are headphones which support it... no mainstream OS does. Android, (desktop) Linux*, Windows... nope. So it's deeply misleading.

https://habr.com/en/post/456182/

* it's apparently possible; someone did make it work on Linux.

[–]frustynumbar 36 points37 points  (12 children)

Discount airlines, they existed before that but on a much smaller scale in my area.

Free grocery pickup

Cheap LED bulbs and flashlights. Can't remember exactly when it happened but I remember flashlights being complete garbage when I was younger and now they're awesome.

[–][deleted]  (11 children)

[deleted]

    [–]frustynumbar 22 points23 points  (3 children)

    Yeah that's true. I think it's a result of:

    1. Society in general switched to more casual clothing. You look at old photos of a baseball game and the men were in suits with hats, now that's unthinkable.
    2. Flying used to be too expensive for the vast majority of people except for business travelers. People dressed up on flights because they were going to business meetings or something where they needed to be dressed up. Now it's affordable for consumers so they wear their everyday clothes instead of their work clothes.

    [–]Haffrung 10 points11 points  (2 children)

    People used to get dressed up for vacation too. You’d bring a nice set of clothes for the plane and for the restaurants you planned to eat at - wearing jeans or shorts and a t-shirt to a quality restaurant was not done.

    I’m old enough to remember air travel in the late 70s and early 80s, and it was dramatically different.

    Middle-class and upper-middle-class people might take an airplane vacation once every three or four years, so it was a Very Big Deal. People dressed up. Almost no children under 6 (why spend a huge amount of money on an experience a child will be too young to remember), and older children uncommon enough that they would be invited to the cockpit to meet the pilots and marvel at the view. Wide seats, decent hot meals, and free alcohol on longer flights. Checked baggage was built into the ticket price, so nobody was jamming carry-on into the overhead bins - those were used for storing pillows and blankets for passengers.

    Of course, adjusted for inflation tickets cost two to three times what they cost today. You get what you pay for.

    [–]--MCMC-- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    How many of these amenities may be found in today's business and first classes, which do indeed start at two or three times what economy costs? I'd probably dress casually if I were to fly those classes now, but I'm certainly going to optimize for my own comfort when flying in otherwise uncomfortable, budget conditions.

    [–]randomuuid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I’m old enough to remember air travel in the late 79s and early 80s, and it was dramatically different.

    Same, although I wouldn't trade any of the insults and inconveniences of 2020s plane travel for 70s/80s smoking.

    [–]Yashabird 18 points19 points  (5 children)

    I can appreciate some good old-fashioned elitism, but wearing sweats on flights instead of dressing to impress random strangers during prolonged periods of relative discomfort seems like just basic common sense. I’m gonna call the greatest historical leap forward in consumer flight experience a tossup between: this, jet engines, and xanax maybe.

    [–]Haffrung 5 points6 points  (2 children)

    Nice clothes don’t have to be uncomfortable. And a lot of people still get dressed up for fine dining - which is a good comparable for what air travel used to be like; a rare and expensive treat in an environment elevated from the common ruck of day-to-day life.

    [–]Yashabird 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I’ve been on hundreds of flights in my life and still try keep in mind how special and cool it is to fly through the air.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kBLkX2VaQs4

    The whole spiel is on point for this question, but t:~1:30 regarding an appropriate perspective on flights.

    I think it’s still different from fine dining though. You’re right in that nice clothes don’t have to be uncomfortable, but between belts, collars and neckties, and makeup/high heels, “nice clothes” do sort of force you to sit up straight and be alert to your environment, if for no other reason than to keep clean. This can be conducive to a gustatory experience, since the obvious realities of human body odor and sweat stains (i’m speaking in relative extremes, but…) isn’t exactly appetizing. Flights are different in that they can last much longer, the primary purpose isn’t aesthetic/gustatory, and depending on your travel itinerary/if you’re traveling with kids, there can be just a lot more frustration to compensate for by not having to also look and feel prim.

    [–]--MCMC-- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    They don't have to be uncomfortable on some binary scale, but they're certainly less comfortable than their equivalent athleisure / casual option.

    By nice I'm also assuming you mean business casual and up on the scale of formality, rather than just something with quality construction or aesthetic appeal. A t-shirt and shorts can definitely be nice in the latter regards.

    [–]motram 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    but wearing sweats on flights instead of dressing to impress random strangers during prolonged periods of relative discomfort seems like just basic common sense

    Using this logic there is never a situation where you wouldn't wear sweats

    [–]Yashabird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Haha there might be something to be said for always wearing sweats, but i do think there are times in public life when the point of your activity is a little more focused towards impressing random strangers. Likewise i think there are situations that might call for more restrictive clothing, either for the point of leveraging discomfort toward attention to the task at hand, which you might say is achieved by neckties or high heels at work (on the other hand, decreased attention to your environment might be a relative boon on a passenger flight), and also other environments aren’t as constricting, so your personal comfort might just rely less on your clothing.

    [–]TheAJx 5 points6 points  (0 children)

    Counterpoint:

    TSA Pre-Check, online check-in, preponderance of lounges and food options at airports, wifi on planes has made flying better, if you know what you are doing.

    The main issue really is that the frequency of flights has increased significantly (especially with domestic flights no longer being served by wide-bodies) while capacity at our busiest airports - SFO, LAX, O'Hare etc has remained fixed, resulting in more delays.

    Additionally, ancilliary fees surrounding baggage that have made the boarding process ridiculous. It seems to have sorted itself out though, there seems to be a lot less forced gate-check of bags relative to 4-5 years ago when things got really bad.

    [–]themes_arrows 32 points33 points  (1 child)

    Ultra-wide computer monitors are great!

    [–]--MCMC-- 14 points15 points  (0 children)

    And cheap large dense screens in general. I use a 40” 4K TV I bought for $200 some time back as a monitor and it works great! Such real estate!

    [–]mrspecial 27 points28 points  (11 children)

    The ability to easily find restaurants in most cities for people with lots of dietary restrictions.

    Exercising without headphone cables running into your pockets.

    No longer having to worry about which friends are going to be in my top 8 and what that says to my other friends.

    [–]wetrorave 15 points16 points  (7 children)

    What I miss from 10 years ago is less people even having dietary restrictions.

    All these allergies make me think we're systematically poisoning ourselves (too much toxin exposure can create allergies), but we can't pinpoint exactly which mainstream substance(s) are those poisons.

    [–]mrspecial 14 points15 points  (4 children)

    This is very true. I had a slew of intestinal and bowel issues that caused me a lot of issues in my day to day life. The only thing that helped at all was a totally draconian diet. I moved from the southern US to mostly rural area in the southern EU about two months ago and most of my issues mysteriously vanished. The only logical thing I can think of is there is something going on with the food supply that no one can figure out. I’m leaning towards either a high level of mold (look it up, it’s crazy) or something related to how crops are raised or transported

    [–]HomarusSimpsonSomewhat wrong 9 points10 points  (1 child)

    u/Slimemoldtimemold from around these parts is in the middle of a multipart examination of possible environmental/dietary contaminants that are making us obese, but this has a considerable overlap with your issues potentially.

    https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/

    [–]mrspecial 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I’ve been meaning to go back and read more of that, thanks for the reminder. Interesting stuff, I think somethings going to come out within the next 5-10 years that changes everything re:food supply

    [–]HarryPotter5777 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    a high level of mold (look it up, it’s crazy)

    I tried a bit of googling and didn't see anything obviously crazy. Can you share some relevant links or search terms?

    [–]mrspecial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Search for aflatoxin B1, or mycotoxins in general, and how they are present in coffee, wheat, maize, etc. The general consensus is that individual foods don’t contain enough to hurt you, but they are present mostly in foods that are cheap and abundant and if you are only eating this stuff….

    Mycotoxins and the body are still understudied, lots of conflicting info and pseudoscience

    [–]brberg 11 points12 points  (1 child)

    There's a theory that it's the other way around and we're developing allergies because our immune systems are getting bored without any real pathogens to fight off.

    [–]wetrorave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Well that's it then, my mind's made up. If I have kids they're going to be nice and dirty and healthy!

    [–]adrianisprettyfine 5 points6 points  (2 children)

    What’s the top 8 thing?

    [–]crowstep[Twitter Delenda Est] 14 points15 points  (1 child)

    MySpace required it's users to select eight top friends that would be visible on the homepage. It was the source of much teenage drama as you can imagine.

    [–]mrspecial 12 points13 points  (0 children)

    Back in the olden days when people thought background music was a great web design concept

    [–]vikramkeskar 67 points68 points  (5 children)

    Anything related to banking. Between internet banking and payment apps I almost never have to step into a bank branch ever

    Maps - me and my whole family are directionally challenged idiots. I am so happy not having to devote even a neuron of my brain to figuring out directions.

    Coordination - I am in multiple different activity based groups and polling people, sharing locations, doing check-ins is so easy.

    Vacation travel - Today everyone travels on their vacation and it almost seems redundant. But in the 80s and 90s it was not only expensive but fuckin boring. Because all tourists went to the same places and did the same things. Taking a chance in anything slightly offbeat was just too risky (essentially impossible for families with kids). You could easily end up without a place to eat or a place to stay or cheated or just find the thing you wanted to see didn't exist anymore or was closed.

    Notes - One benefit of always having my phone on me is I always have my notes. So when my colleague gives me back-up keys to their house I can just write down in my phone notes app where I have kept them. So 8 months down the line when they get locked out of their house I don't have to 30 mins tearing my house down trying to remember where I kept them.

    [–]netstack_ 13 points14 points  (1 child)

    I simply can't imagine navigating by a fold-out map or atlas.

    This is astonishing considering I grew up at the tail end of that era, before TomTom/Garmin really took off. I still don't know how my parents did it.

    Interesting point, too, about vacations. The combination of robust communications and ridiculously full-featured online services (maps, but also attraction reviews and booking) has really changed the playing field.

    [–]brberg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    I simply can't imagine navigating by a fold-out map or atlas.

    I used a book-type map (specifically a Thomas Guide). It's not so bad. If you get lost, you find the nearest cross-street, look it up in the index, and you're back in business. You did have to kind of memorize the route if you're driving alone, though, since it's dangerous to be trying to figure out a map while driving. It's definitely not as good as GPS, though. I started pulling over to the side of the road significantly less once I got a smartphone.

    [–]Haffrung 9 points10 points  (1 child)

    Vacation travel

    While it’s worlds easier to plan a family vacation today (I’m old enough to remember when everything had to be done through travel agents), I do think something has been lost when it comes to independent travel. When I backpacked around Europe in the early 90s, I spent much of my time in places I had never even heard of 48 hours before. Sure, you could wind up in a jam. But you were also exploring, with nothing to guide you except word of mouth and maybe a tattered Let’s Go. That opens tremendous scope for serendipity that is lacking today, when every possible hotel, restaurant, site, museum, beach, etc. can be viewed, reviewed, ranked, and to some extent experienced before you even drive to the airport.

    [–]--MCMC-- 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    That seems like it's entirely up to the user to decide how much they want to 'spoil the surprise'. Can't you just opt to not exhaustively research all possible destinations, instead going wherever the wind takes you? Or plan things out only in the loosest terms, opportunistically zigzagging between PoI?

    Like, it just seems like things are more efficient now. Yesterday's travel guide is just today's tripadvisor, yesterday's word-of-mouth is todays' "ask for advice on the relevant city / country subreddit". Someone yearning for inefficiency can just impose artificial restrictions on themselves, right? (I mean, a lot of traveling is already about artificially simulating exploratory adventures of yonder past, IMO)

    [–]TheAJx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    You could easily end up without a place to eat or a place to stay or cheated or just find the thing you wanted to see didn't exist anymore or was closed.

    Without Tripadvisor or Yelp it wasn't easy to know what the really good restaurants or bars in town were. Sure you could go by word of mouth or concierge recommendation, but that was hit or miss.

    [–]UtridRagnarson 42 points43 points  (3 children)

    Indie video games. The kinds of games I like are much more widely available and cheaper than they were 10 years ago even as triple A games have stagnated.

    Craft beer.

    Cheap audiobooks? I'm not sure when it stared happening that almost all audiobooks were available for $15 or less and many free through libraries digitally.

    Music festivals? I don't enjoy these, but I know people who do.

    Video streaming

    Faster, more reliable internet with more options (although still not enough options most places)

    Better/more vacation rental options and BnBs?

    [–]gilbatron 2 points3 points  (2 children)

    Any particular video game tips?

    [–]Action_Bronzong 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    You mean like recommendations?

    If you enjoy puzzle, mystery, and exploration games, The Outer Wilds is probably the best distillation of all three I've played in actual decades. Go into it blind if you can, but know that even if you've been spoiled on some of the cool things, it still holds up fantastically well.

    [–]Daniel_HMBD 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    Those really did the trick for me * hollow knight (challenge/difficulty, atmosphere) * celeste (challenge/difficulty, story) * transistor (soundtrack, art style) * whatever remains of Edith Finch (story & personal impact, avoid spoilers and play blind, only 2..3 hours required) * gris (soundtrack, art style) * Kentucky route zero (story, narative structure)

    [–]flagamuffin 69 points70 points  (6 children)

    reddit has simultaneously become a lot worse but a lot more helpful over the past decade

    it used to be a place with interesting people and it no longer is, unless you look really hard. on the flip side, it's become by far the most useful news aggregator, because none of the others get as granular. in a world of information saturation, the most valuable tools are the ones with the best filters and narrowest focus.

    [–]Toptomcat 54 points55 points  (3 children)

    reddit has simultaneously become a lot worse but a lot more helpful over the past decade

    it used to be a place with interesting people and it no longer is, unless you look really hard.

    Honestly, I think it's approximately as hard to find the 'nice neighborhoods' within Reddit as it was to find Reddit itself back then. The whole Internet-federalism thing they have going on is probably the one of the best tools I've yet seen to ensure that some pockets of good conversation are maintained even as a Web site's audience and userbase massively broadens.

    [–]russianpotato 8 points9 points  (2 children)

    Try /r/themotte if you can stand the witches you'll enjoy it.

    [–]quyksilver 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Witches?

    [–]CronoDAS 6 points7 points  (0 children)

    The kinds of people who loudly express the kinds of opinions that you can get in trouble for having.

    "The moral of the story is: if you’re against witch-hunts, and you promise to found your own little utopian community where witch-hunts will never happen, your new society will end up consisting of approximately three principled civil libertarians and seven zillion witches. It will be a terrible place to live even if witch-hunts are genuinely wrong."

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]Sheshirdzhija 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      reddit has simultaneously become a lot worse but a lot more helpful over the past decade

      I dunno, works fine for me.

      It surfaces posts from smaller communities I read more (like this one) disproportionately compared to bigger ones.

      It is hit and miss though, but that is to be expected. Still much better then google feed.

      If on google I search once for "how to grow salad from seed", it will incessantly spam my entire feed with salad growing news. I have to micromanage my interest there constantly.

      Plus, most news google serves are from websites which have no comment sections, which is important for a lot of subjects I read on. Like, currently I am in the process of planning to build a house. If I read on a certain technique or material, I want to read real experiences and discussions from people in comments. But google mostly serves ads in form of news, like from manufacturer websites and such.

      So comparatively, reddit feed it far better for me.

      [–]fuboan Ayn Rand sandwich straight from the can, it tasted so bland 13 points14 points  (10 children)

      PurpleAir launched in 2015. It's pretty handy if your area has wildfires or other air quality problems.

      Recreational use of cannabis became legal in California in 2018; if you're going to inhale particulates, they may as well be pleasant ones.

      [–]-Metacelsus-Attempting human transmutation 3 points4 points  (9 children)

      if you're going to inhale particulates, they may as well be pleasant ones.

      Why not just do edibles?

      [–]wutcnbrowndo4uone-man egregore 15 points16 points  (8 children)

      Less control over timing and magnitude of effect, (subjectively) worse high, loss of social ritual, etc.

      The last one is the only one I don't especially care about personally, but it's significant for a lot of people I know. Consider the difference between having a glass of scotch with a friend vs both taking a pill and having the effect of the alcohol hit you at some point an hourish later.

      [–]WeathermanDan 5 points6 points  (7 children)

      Your 1st and 3rd point are quite related. I’ve hung with friends where we’ve all taken edibles. Unless you’re doing something very engaging, there’s a lot of sitting and awkwardly asking “are you high? Nice, how high are you!?”

      The longer duration of high from edibles can be unpleasant. If you’re smoking flower (not out of a bong), your high is mostly done after 30-45 minutes. With edibles, you can still be uncomfortably high for several hours if you don’t dose properly.

      [–]Whetfarts69 2 points3 points  (3 children)

      Worse for lungs though.

      [–]wutcnbrowndo4uone-man egregore 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      Of course, but vaping flower very neatly sidesteps the vast majority of this risk (I don't find the evidence for lung risk very convincing, in particular if you avoid disposables and juices).

      [–]Whetfarts69 -1 points0 points  (1 child)

      Most don't vape though. They just straight smoke flower. And I find it convincing enough to not smoke it regularly. But hey they're your lungs.

      [–]wutcnbrowndo4uone-man egregore 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Most don't vape though

      I mean sure, but I don't see how this is relevant. You responded to a post talking about edibles' downsides with "worse for lungs". I responded with how you can avoid the lung risk without needing to deal with edibles' downsides. "Some people don't do this" doesn't seem particularly relevant.

      I find it convincing enough to not smoke it regularly

      Could you share the findings you find convincing? It's possible I'm not up on the latest research.

      [–]wutcnbrowndo4uone-man egregore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      If you’re smoking flower (not out of a bong), your high is mostly done after 30-45 minutes.

      I definitely get high for way longer than this smoking flower.

      Your 1st and 3rd point are quite related. I’ve hung with friends where we’ve all taken edibles. Unless you’re doing something very engaging, there’s a lot of sitting and awkwardly asking “are you high? Nice, how high are you!?”

      I can see this, but it hasn't really been the case for me. Though I suppose it's probably because we only take edibles in situations where we're chilling for a long period of time: lazy evenings, concerts, etc.

      [–]Yashabird 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      30-45 minutes…?

      [–]TetrisMcKenna 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      When I used to smoke weed like a green chimney, 40 mins was absolutely my buffer to go from "too stoned to do anything" to "still feeling the after effects, but able to function".

      [–]nmehndir 13 points14 points  (0 children)

      Huge number of great podcasts with top tier intellectuals

      Which ones do you listen to? I started listening to 80,000 Hours a few weeks ago and like it a lot so far; each episode I've listened to has introduced some unintuitive insight to me.

      [–]netstack_ 12 points13 points  (3 children)

      The outrageous amount of free fiction and nonfiction available online.

      For entertainment, there are endless novels, serials, fanfictions, and ambitious multimedia projects available online. For research or nonfiction, even more. These existed 10 years ago but have only expanded in quantity and quality.

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [removed]

        [–]netstack_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        I was going to mention Project Gutenberg, but apparently it's been around a lot longer than I thought.

        [–]jaghataikhan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Yeah Worm alone basically single-handedly codified how webfics are structured haha - true, fanfics and fictionpress were a thing for decades, but for whatever reason it seems there's been a Cambrian explosion of them since

        [–]WhoRoger 11 points12 points  (0 children)

        Power banks. Ubiquitous nowadays, but I don't know why it's taken this long for them to be commonplace. Even tho it's such a trivial, inexpensive idea.

        [–]nexech 10 points11 points  (0 children)

        Ride sharing networks

        Finding meetups online

        More reliable video calls

        [–]OrbitRock_ 8 points9 points  (4 children)

        Online language exchange apps with people from all over the world.

        [–]Chopstick_Shaman 6 points7 points  (1 child)

        I haven’t had many good experiences with language apps, which have you found useful, and for what?

        [–]OrbitRock_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

        My favorite is HelloTalk. For several languages but learned Spanish, Portuguese, and some French on there.

        [–][deleted]  (1 child)

        [deleted]

          [–]OrbitRock_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          I use HelloTalk. For Spanish, Portuguese, some French.

          And yes, maybe I just wasn’t active in the space back then!

          [–]NAFAL44 25 points26 points  (12 children)

          The collection of technologies that has made web development much easier than it was in 2011 (Things like AWS and React). Result has been a much more expansive, pretty, and user friendly internet!

          [–]snet0 17 points18 points  (0 children)

          Things often look nicer, but I think average performance is awful. Despite my internet speed being massively faster, and likewise my computing hardware, sites often take similar times to be interactable, and not infrequently are slower than I recall sites in 2011 being.

          I think part of this is sort of akin to Jevons' paradox. When more compute and bandwidth is available, we expand the toolkit to make use of it. And then we keep going, until we end up performing worse than we did before the improvements! React, AWS, all the browser APIs, ES6, everything new and shiny and great have lead to amazing things being built, but I think it's often like "well everyone's internet speed is good enough that API calls are basically free, so why not make 2 trillion of them and have them block the UI and return raw JSON of everything even tangentially related to the request?".

          I saw a post on HN yesterday where Barclays would send something like 70,000 phone numbers (I believe these were their list of official numbers?) as a damn JSON object to the browser. When internet speeds were bad, this would be obviously awful, but now it's good enough if your connection is great, otherwise it's fucked.

          [–]netstack_ 11 points12 points  (7 children)

          To some degree, yes. The average site's UX has improved by a long shot.

          There's also some unfriendliness introduced by increasing bandwidth and maturation of advertising models. When was the first time that a website tried to shove their "chat with a representative" banner in your face? That you had to update your cookie settings for a site you'd seen last week? That you had to scroll past mid-page ads and six paragraphs of filler to read a recipe?

          [–]Sheshirdzhija 8 points9 points  (6 children)

          To some degree, yes. The average site's UX has improved by a long shot.

          I don't know which internet you speak of, the one I keep trying to surf, but anything related to "NEWS" is 95% ads. Not just in links, but also on news sites, like 95% of random website news article is ads. They put ads as the background image, so as to avoid certain rules. Autoplaying videos that you can't turn of. Hundreds of links to "related news" which are in fact ads.

          UX before is you open a website, there are ads on the side and you read the article. Now I have to hunt for the actual text of the news article.

          [–]TetrisMcKenna 0 points1 point  (2 children)

          News has always been a business first and front for advertising though. Newspapers were the original pop up ad delivery system. Most news is completely unnecessary for an individual.

          [–]Sheshirdzhija 0 points1 point  (1 child)

          No I know, but it has gotten much worse IMHO in the last few years.

          I have not yet tried any paid news aggregators though because I have poor experience with googles algos. I mostly just search for a topic I am interested, instead of browsing through everything on offer, because the latter makes me sick in my stomach.

          [–]TetrisMcKenna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          I've pretty much given up and rely on the fact that people will tell me the important stuff.

          Occasionally this leads to a faux pas where I make a joke and someone goes "oof, too soon" or something like that, and it turns out a horrendous crime related to what I said happened recently, that I had never heard of, lol.

          Or recently I went to Loch Lomond and thought the spiel the campsite warden gave about drowning was a bit heavy handed, turned out someone had drowned there a couple of weeks ago.

          Still, I think it's worth avoiding the constant bombardment of bullshit

          [–]netstack_ 0 points1 point  (2 children)

          Hmm, the "average" site probably is a ad-ridden news site at this point.

          I was thinking of the generic small-business website, but I'm not really sure the improvements I'm thinking of happened in the last 10 years.

          [–]Sheshirdzhija 1 point2 points  (1 child)

          I have not taken any statistics, but at the very least small business websites that incorporate webshops are far better, much more numerous and mostly friction free. It's at a point where I order coffee beans online, where 10 years ago I would not even think of it. Even clothing (after I try them in person), because laws in EU are such that online shoppers have guaranteed return rights no questions asked.

          [–]netstack_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

          Oh yeah, good example. A big chunk of this has to be the rise of payment processors; Paypal was revolutionary, but now small purchases allow direct credit card options.

          [–]qazadex 6 points7 points  (0 children)

          Maybe more pretty, but I'm honestly doubtful that userfriendliness has really increased due to the mountains of extra generated javascript. Compare new vs old reddit for an obvious example.

          [–]Platypuss_In_Boots 19 points20 points  (2 children)

          Much greater variety in supermarket vegan food options.

          Low-cost international bus lines in Europe

          [–][deleted]  (1 child)

          [deleted]

            [–]TetrisMcKenna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

            Health foods sure, but my favourite supermarket development over the last 2-3 years has been the amount of plant-based junk food on offer. Give me all the salty, saucy, deep fried snack food that omnis have enjoyed since the dawn of time pls.

            [–]thy_thyck_dyck 7 points8 points  (0 children)

            Fitness watches have progressed significantly. I love my Garmin Fenix, and the maps have gotten me out of some sticky situations hiking.

            [–]Mr-Ed209 6 points7 points  (0 children)

            TV's

            Years ago it seemed like you went for a budget option and suffered, or spent 1000s on a top line TV that was significantly better.v

            I bought a relatively cheap 55' lcd last year and it's incredible. My parents still have a 45' they bought back in 2011, which at the time was quite premium - when 3d tv was trying to b3 made a thing. The difference in resolution, colour and overall picture quality is night and day.

            [–]UncleWeyland 6 points7 points  (0 children)

            1. Free Streaming has come a long way from 2010. YouTube and Twitch are amazing given they cost 0. I just finished watching a really good full film from the 1970s totally legally and without a hitch or a single advertisement, thanks all to YouTube. (On the flip side, I have very little positive to say about how the paid platforms have evolved over the last 5 years- Netflix in particular has gone from Must Have to Meh). The educational content is superb too, if you know who to trust (3Blue1Brown, Veritasium, Real Engineering, ZeFrank...)

            2. As much as I hated how Zoom got shoved down everyone's throat like some Deep State conspiracy at the start of the pandemic- it beats the shit out of Skype and most other platforms. Big tech leap there.

            3. Cars have improved a shitload in terms of safety and warning features over the last 10 years. I don't actually own one with all the fancy assisted driving feature yet, but I reap massive positive externalities from everyone on the road that does (and uses them properly).

            4. I don't recall the last time I had to fax something, but it was almost 10 years ago roughly. Thank fucking Christ.

            5. Over the last 10 years the podcast ecosystem has selected for some very good content. I *never" miss Conversations with Tyler.

            6. Vaccine technology obviously.

            7. Medical imaging in general has improved substantially over the last years too. I had an MRI and was impressed by how quickly it was scheduled, done, and analyzed.

            I'll edit with more if I think of any.

            [–]cowboy_dude_6 5 points6 points  (0 children)

            Homebrewing beer. I don't have a good homebrew supply shop near me, so having everything I need easily available online is really the only reason I can enjoy the hobby.

            [–][deleted]  (3 children)

            [deleted]

              [–][deleted]  (2 children)

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                [–]TetrisMcKenna 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                I.e. dark web marketplaces. Never been more convenient.

                [–]Waspy-the-spy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                I think what they said was pretty straightforward

                [–]Haffrung 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                Spotify. 10 years ago I was paying for individual songs and albums on iTunes.

                [–]FritzSchnitz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                Getting a car home from the bar

                [–]Sheshirdzhija 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                Online shopping ubiquity.

                [–]Frumpagumpus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                nixos

                spacemacs/doom emacs/vs code/language server protocol

                recently found artificial sugar water flavorers at my local grocery store, kind of like an improved version of kool aid, and they now come in little squeeze bottles... i like to add it to my decaffinated tea powder

                soylent, 8 or so years ago I was living on a diy formula but the modern/official stuff is way better (first formula would give you super death farts)

                gaming chairs are waaaaaaay cheaper than they used to be, also got a desk that adjusts in height (you could get one back then but way more expensive)

                online shopping

                cashing checks by taking a pic

                [–]-Metacelsus-Attempting human transmutation 12 points13 points  (3 children)

                CRISPR gene editing!

                [–]sharks2 9 points10 points  (2 children)

                How exactly do you "enjoy" CRISPR?

                [–]-Metacelsus-Attempting human transmutation 37 points38 points  (0 children)

                I regularly use it in my research. It's way more convenient than previous methods.

                [–]RonaldPottol 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                Ebikes are really nice.

                [–]ProphetOfTime 7 points8 points  (10 children)

                "ubiquity of ramen and poke restaurants" - is this really a "10 years ago" thing, or is it a "moved" thing? 10 years ago, San Francisco had that ubiquity, and today, your average mid-sized Midwestern city does not.

                [–]alphazeta2019 16 points17 points  (1 child)

                Didn't William Gibson say, "The ramen is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." ??

                [–]HomarusSimpsonSomewhat wrong 5 points6 points  (0 children)

                I think that was exactly what he said

                [–]ii2iidore 13 points14 points  (0 children)

                Ubiquity implies spreading in location though?

                [–]wutcnbrowndo4uone-man egregore 9 points10 points  (0 children)

                It wasn't even available in every big city a decade ago. Here's the NYT in 2016: Poke Reaches the Shores of Manhattan

                I was under the impression that ramen was widespread much earlier, but I may be wrong

                [–]flagamuffin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                your average mid-sized Midwestern city does not

                the ones with asian populations do

                [–]netstack_ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                I'd actually say the average midwestern one does. My college town had a couple. The neighboring city had more. My current generic suburb has a ridiculous number, but it also has a high Asian population.

                [–]PlacidPlatypus 2 points3 points  (2 children)

                At least in the Boston area poke wasn't really a thing 10 years ago and definitely is now.

                [–]jaghataikhan 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                I first noticed them exploding in 2017 ish in Cambridge/ Somerville-ish, now it's ubiquitous

                [–]PlacidPlatypus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                It was weird for me because I visited Hawaii in I think 2016 and tried poke for the first time there, then it apparently followed me home.

                [–]PM_ME_UR_OBSIDIANhad a qualia once 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                The Down Dog apps for working out from home. randomized yoga and HIIT.

                Video games have come a long way in recent years. Factorio, Slay The Spire, Risk of Rain, and many more.

                [–]qazadex 1 point2 points  (2 children)

                flash frozen food

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_food#History

                From 1929, Clarence Birdseye introduced "flash freezing" to the American public.

                Flash frozen food is not something thats new.

                [–]Whetfarts69 5 points6 points  (0 children)

                Technique and offerings improved. The quality of frozen meals ten years ago was shit compared to today.

                [–]WikiSummarizerBot -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

                Frozen food

                History

                Natural food freezing (using winter frosts) had been in use by people in cold climates for centuries. In 1861 Thomas Sutcliffe Mort established at Darling Harbour in Sydney, Australia, the world's first freezing works, which later became the New South Wales Fresh Food and Ice Company. Mort financed experiments by Eugene Dominic Nicolle, a French born engineer who had arrived in Sydney in 1853 and registered his first ice-making patent in 1861. The first trial shipment of frozen meat to London was in 1868.

                [ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5

                [–]EntropyDealer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                Cheap and effective indoor air filtration systems with HEPA filters, particularly from Xiaomi. Cleanroom-level particulate indoor air with regulated CO2 levels regardless of what goes on outside now costs <$1000 per 500 sq.ft. or so

                [–]beluga_ciabatta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                E-books from the local library via Overdrive. During the pandemic our library was closed (aside from pickup), so I found out how neat this functionality was. It's not as comprehensive of a selection, but it works.

                The ubiquity of bluetooth audio devices (speakers, headphones, cars). The seamless transition from headphones to car audio bluetooth is a nice reduction in friction.

                [–]TheAJx 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                Chicks in yoga pants. It must be like 80% prevalence now in cities.

                [–]TheAJx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                AirBnb started about 12 years ago, but really, the ability to stay at somebody's house rather than just at a hotel or managed rental property is pretty new. Many of my friends haven't stayed in hotels in years. With a family, an AirBnb with kitchen is far more valuable than free breakfast.

                [–]jacobef 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                "Sign in/sign up with Google" being available on many websites

                [–]Whetfarts69 10 points11 points  (0 children)

                Kinda terrifying in a way as you're giving Google even more access to your information.

                [–]Egalitarianwhistle 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                I could get Ramen noodles for cheap at Walmarts even ten years ago.

                [–]ConsistentNumber6 8 points9 points  (0 children)

                Restaurant ramen is a totally different beast from instant.