Happinness Takes (A Little) Magic

February 2, 2012 12:35 PM

Brian Lam, from the excellent resource the wirecutter, drops some knowledge about what it's like to live a bit more meaningfully. "I owe my livelihood to technology and I love the raw capability it offers us as a tool, but I fear it a bit more than most people do. It's a tool, but it's not quite a hammer, because a hammer doesn't seduce you into sitting around lonely in your underwear for 6 hours at a stretch clicking on youtube videos and refreshing Twitter.
posted by pwally (15 comments total)

Obviously Brian Lam hasn't tried the REALLY GOOD hammers.
posted by happyroach at 12:39 PM on February 2

that's because you don't go to hammercam.com. Rawrrr.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:39 PM on February 2

Prince alone in the studio
It's three a.m.
Prince hasn't eaten in eighteen hours
Dinner's burned on the stove
But Prince, he doesn't even know

Prince alone in the studio
It's four a.m.
And he finally gets that guitar track right
And it's better than anything any girl could ever give him
Because Prince is alone
Prince is alone
Oh Prince, you are so alone

And when it's all complete
He feels like a hunter on the street
And when it's all complete
He feels like a hunter on the street
posted by dng at 12:43 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Disillusioned tech journalists who blog about how they've JUST FIGURED OUT the newest phone won't solve their problems and that buying more crap just means you have more crap: I am trying really hard to be sympathetic, but you are making it very difficult.
posted by dubold at 12:44 PM on February 2 [7 favorites]

Why are people always dropping their knowledge? They should really be more careful with it. It may not be fragile, but it deserves respect.
posted by adamdschneider at 12:49 PM on February 2

Can't Brian find another prototype phone to steal that will satisfy him?
posted by Mad_Carew at 12:53 PM on February 2

While I agree with the point he's making (which is basically, have other hobbies and get some fresh air once in awhile), by his own admission, he spent most of his time online reading silly top-1o lists, watching movie trailers on yt, and refreshing facebook / twitter. No wonder he was depressed.
posted by mannequito at 12:54 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

and refreshing Twitter. Metafilter
posted by Trochanter at 12:55 PM on February 2

I liked his rant, and I sympathize, but another op-ed rant doesn't seem like the solution to all the noise.

I've been aiming for more signal and less noise for a while now, but I do still find myself back in places like metafilter clicking all the links.

Knowing that you're an easily amused monkey is one thing, but changing is a bit harder I guess.
posted by Stagger Lee at 12:58 PM on February 2

Obviously what he needed was Internet-b-gone, brought to you by the makers of Tv-b-gone!
posted by entropicamericana at 1:04 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

I was keeping a fairly open mind until he quoted the Unabomber.
posted by no relation at 1:55 PM on February 2

I stopped reading blogs that write stories like "top 17 photos of awesome clouds by iphone" and "EXCLUSIVE ANGRY BIRDS COMING TO FACEBOOK ON VALENTINES DAY."

The sidebar linkage - which includes choice items like "Top 6 Sites to Find Cool Gadgets and Gear" - made me realize I should stop reading the article right there.
posted by scruss at 2:26 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

Nerd goes outside. Story at 11.
posted by swift at 8:47 PM on February 2

Internet-b-gone

When I want to up my signal-noise ratio, I just add a bunch of my most commonly visited sites to my localhosts file on windows XP - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc

Adding "0.0.0.0 picturesofcats.com" at the bottom means I get a 'page not found' error* every time my lizard brain spontaneously decides it is bored and goes to look for new input. You'd be amazed how long it takes me to learn that that particular reward button is broken too, it is scary.

*added bonus, if I'm at work and have a server running, this brings up the page I should be working on!
posted by omnikron at 2:56 AM on February 3

That works until your lizard brain realizes it only takes a few seconds to pop back into the hosts file and take those lines out.

My lizard brain is a tricky motherfucker.
posted by Zozo at 12:43 PM on February 3