Your shallow substandard future is here. Do this before it’s too late
Waiting in line, I noticed a man browsing a website on his phone. On his cluttered screen, at the top there was a fixed ad banner, in the middle a cookie consent popup, and at the bottom another ad banner. He was trying to read a news article through a tiny window of only about two rows of text, sniper-scrolling his way down to the conclusion. “Welcome to the future,” I thought.
Have you noticed how everything is becoming less nutritious, less reliable, less entertaining, and less durable?
Present-day knock-offs are more expensive than the real thing of the past.
We act rich!
- Rich in information, poor in knowledge.
- Rich in data, poor in understanding.
- Rich in calories, poor in nutrients.
- Rich in theory, poor in execution.
- Rich in ads, poor in substance.
Welcome to your future
We “progress” by making things efficient, cheaper, faster, and loaded with tech. We regress by failing to make them durable, repairable, functional, and long-lasting.
Nobody wants to buy used electric cars 1. Their battery replacement program is non-existent 2. If EVs require fewer parts and less maintenance, why are they more expensive than the combustion models?
TikTok and Instagram, the world’s most popular apps, don’t offer nutritious entertainment 3. You need another “hit” every five minutes. It’s addicting and unnatural to be bombarded with so much varied content in seconds.
Fast food quality worsened. McDonald’s in the past used to deep-fry french fries in beef tallow fat 4—now they use canola oil which is cheaper. Fries are less tasty, and canola oil has a lot of Omega-6, which skews the ratio of Omega-3 / Omega-6 in our body.
You can’t find anything to watch on Netflix 5. Tens of thousands of movies and shows are one-click away. Why is it so hard to find a good movie?
Furniture made out of cheap MDF is sold by IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer. MDF furniture needs to be replaced more frequently and is more brittle. In the meantime, my grandma’s solid wood furniture looks pristine even after eighty years of no maintenance.
Streaming music is convenient but lacks “romance” and pays artists crap 6. Spotify is the McDonald’s of music consumption.
Fast fashion has tricked us 7. We buy trendy cheap clothing only to replace it after a few wears. Good for business, bad for everyone else, including the planet.
We have the fastest Internet speeds, but browsing websites feels slow. The modern web is full of bloat. Large unoptimised image assets. Useless scripts injected by modern web frameworks. Analytics scripts to track every user’s move. Full of popups and annoying ads.
The battery of the newest MacBook Pro laptops degrades faster 8. My twenty-five-year-old Gateway laptop still turns on and works fine. Will my latest MacBook still turn on in ten years?
Modern food is high in calories but low in essential nutrients 9. Processed foods contribute to the obesity epidemic and increase in chronic diseases.
The future grows our appetite but leaves us unsatiated.
What to do?
Use time as a filter for quality. Use the tools, read the books, wear the clothes, and buy from brands which have withstood the passage of time. Do activities which have been proven to bring happiness, meaning, and joy in life.
Be mindful of what you consume. Eat single-ingredient foods. Don’t drink calories. Limit your consumption of information. Verify data—don’t trust blindly.
Be a late-adopter. Don’t use the newest gear, don’t adopt the latest trend. Experimentation is fun, but remember that it’s transient. You’re engaging with temporary matter and don’t be surprised or disappointed when it doesn’t last.
Fight recency bias. Watch movies from a different era, listen to “old” songs, and read stuff released a decade ago. If we all consume the same content, then we all start to think and act the same. If you have to read the news, read last year’s news (pointless?)
Find like-minded friends who also reject modernity. It’s difficult and lonely trying to resist this neck-breaking progress, filled with cheap knock-offs.
A longer (non-exhaustive) laundry list of suggestions
- Buy less stuff but of higher quality. Opt for quality brands that have been around for a long time. Browse /r/buyitforlife
- If you must buy a car, make sure it’s a reliable one, not a flashy one. Maybe look at brands used by car mechanics, taxi or delivery drivers (most mechanics hate fixing German cars and find them unreliable.)
- Use your brain more and don’t rely so much on technology. Think before Googling, even for one minute. Use your memory. Do calculations in your head, try to estimate and correct yourself after with a calculator.
- Improve your focus. When working: enable “do not disturb,” silent mode, notifications off, disable WiFi, don’t multitask, and keep your phone away.
- Swap consumption of news, with reading books. Buy Lindy books and avoid books that were released in the past two years. Go to the source material. Read the first book that introduced the idea, and skip the regurgitated simplified modern adaptations.
- Watch older movies. Avoid new movies and series until they’ve proven themselves to be watch-worthy.
- Swap doom-scrolling social media with bookmarks. Curate your own playlist/bookmarks of online creators you like, and read/watch their content (use RSS readers — I like NewNewsWire.)
- Listen to entire albums. Rely less on playlists, and don’t skip songs.
- File over app.
- Create your library of photos and videos you enjoy and store it offline (print).
- Commit to a few. Fewer hobbies, fewer relationships, fewer hustles. Invest more time and energy in a few. Constantly starting or adding, is spinning your wheels but going nowhere. The grass is greener where you water it.
- Spend less and invest more. Not worrying about money tomorrow is worth more than what you buy today.
- Use open-source software.
Your future will certainly only get shallower, inferior, and devoid of substance. Fight this regression.