this is something that has always bothered me… I never found the appeal in that and, of course, was pressured by social circles to join in on clubs and similar. this just feels like the most stupid waste of time, as I can’t find any enjoyment on it, and when I watch others doing it they surely look weird and lost in a way. specially the ones I know personally and can attest to their intellect and rational.

eventually I stopped joining them but it kept intriguing me. after reading about it and having long conversations with friends, my conclusion is that this is some left over form of primitive sexual bonding that predates complex speech and became instinctual, a la some “mating dance” ritual. particularly, some more enlightened male friends see that as a “necessary evil” to have sex while others simply never gave me a clear answer (probably don’t ask themselves much and just abide by the social rules). the only thing I could pull from females has been a dismissing “I just like to dance”.

so much so that I could (anecdotally at least) observe very repeatable patterns such as: single couple that eventually meets in a party then stops going, girl that simultaneously loses interest in their partner and gains interest in clubbing which ends up in “someone new” popping up, etc.

as for myself, I can’t really explain the lack of drive. I know for sure I’d rather communicate using actual language and not be in crowded, dark places moving my body aimlessly, faking enjoyment. needless to say, this stance heavily lowers one’s chance to mate, as the whole paradigm revolves around it (at least outside of the dreadful online dating world). so sometimes it can take years for me to develop a new relationship after one has ended. fun fact is that every single one of my girlfriends loved to dance, some even took classes on artistic styles and whatnot.

tldr: I agree

mates used to do that, tastes worse and it’s a bit disgusting (that creepy black oil 🤢)

been 6 years for me. it lasted a long time but their shadow fades away eventually. I’m living in peace now

stay strong, survivor

unfortunately it is complicated… the reason modular is more expensive is because manufacturing and logistics become much more difficult and they lose the opportunity to sell new phones every year claiming new features. it’s a double loss for them.

our consumerist culture makes it difficult for people to realise this, but most of the time we are not paying the real cost of products (the modular question, also sustainability, ethical questions). we tend to complain about the expensive one, when the cheap one might be the one to blame because it’s simply shifting the cost away from the companies and costumers.

if the market ever moves towards modular phones, hopefully a few years later you could be able to do that you’re suggesting

my take on the subject, as someone who worked both in design and arts, and tech, is that the difficulty in discussing this is more rooted on what is art as opposed to what is theft

we mistakingly call illustrator/design work as art work. art is hard to define, but most would agree it requires some level of expressiveness that emanates from the artist (from the condition of the human existence, to social criticism, to beauty by itself) and that’s what makes it valuable. with SD and other AIs, the control of this aspect is actually in the hands of the AI illustrator (or artist?)

whereas design and illustration are associated with product development and market. while they can contain art in a way, they have to adhere to a specific pipeline that is generally (if not always) for profit. to deliver the best-looking imagery for a given purpose in the shortest time possible

designers and illustrators were always bound to be replaced one way or a another, as the system is always aiming to maximize profit (much like the now old discussions between taxis and uber). they have all the rights to whine about it, but my guess is that this won’t save their jobs. they will have to adopt it as a very powerful tool in their workflow or change careers

on the other hand, artists that are worried, if they think the worth of their art lies solely in a specific style they’ve developed, they are in for an epiphany. they might soon realise they aren’t really artists, but freelance illustrators. that’s also not to mention other posts stating that we always climb on the shoulders of past masters - in all areas

both artists and illustrators that embrace this tool will benefit from it, either to express themselves quicker and skipping fine arts school or to deliver in a pace compatible with the market

all that being said I would love to live in a society where people cared more about progress instead of money. imagine artists and designers actively contributing to this tech instead of wasting time talking fighting over IP and copyright…

never used it for that. not a fan of talking to machines

that’s why I hate that I cant reassign it… outside of the alarm thing, it’s just a disabled input

the neatest thing about pixel phones for me was the squeeze to snooze… I’m hanging on to my pixel 3 because of that, since I constantly need alarms and to postpone them for medicines etc. they removed it on pixel 5 onwards and no other phone seems to have it

a big shame that it doesn’t allow you to assign it to other things though … google sucks

fairphone allows this. it has its own issues though

yeah. I have the feeling that this story is way too common. which is very telling of how much the system isn’t driven towards innovation as many claim. we brag a lot about human ability to pass down knowledge via written language and turns out that most information passed down on some of the highest tech industries is done verbally or not at all! lol

it’s great to see this one here. first thing that popped up on my mind

and not because of faith tbf, but because that world is so damn cool. it’s the only series I had to read more than once (probably 3x) just so I could be immersed there again

yep, agreed will all of that

in any case, I never been somewhere where this is properly done to the letter (from an individual’s or managerial’s perspective). not that I REALLY care tbf, I just do my part to the best of my knowledge and fly away hehe

I don’t think I agree with you, replaceability depends on a lot of factors, really.

I’m a lead dev who works mostly in test automation and dev ops. I can assure you that no matter how much and thoroughly I document and share knowledge (I’ve became known in my company for that since every piece of doc has my name somewhere on it lol) I can’t see anyone around there being able to fully take the reins if something happened to me.

in my case, it’s a mixture of talent crisis in the industry, lack of interest/expertise in the field and my own company’s culture (that doesn’t value these infrastructural subjects enough). I bet other people from different areas in tech might share different reasons

but all in all, being irreplaceable is hardly an employee’s fault. if a company can’t manage to lose an employee (or lets people get away without documenting/sharing knowledge) it’s entirely their own fault!