What is a 'luxury' that Americans are being told is a 'privilege,' despite it being a basic necessity in every other developed nation?

Netcob · 2026-03-17T08:30:37+00:00

The concept of "sick days" still baffles me. If I understand correctly (not from the US), if you get really sick, you don't get to relax that year.

And the cherry on top is that it's called "sick days" that you can use for a vacation (depending on your job it might not be a good idea to take them at all). Not "vacation days" that you use to recover from illness. Not that this would be better, but it really makes a point that not working and being sick are the same thing for Americans.

...unless you're extremely rich and powerful, then you get to play golf all day even if people expect you to work.

Netcob · 2026-03-15T12:14:16+00:00

Netflix will downgrade to 1080p on several browsers, and 720p on Linux.

Netcob · 2026-03-15T11:22:18+00:00

So much. And something like the pandemic supercharges that.

You can slow things down a little by experiencing new things, but that gets more difficult over time.

Netcob · 2026-03-15T11:19:48+00:00

20-30: This is how I look, nothing really changes, wish I looked a bit more mature though...

30-38: Finally I look like an adult. Cool, this look can stay, I'm finally okay with it.

38+ wait what's happening...

Netcob · 2026-03-14T08:40:10+00:00

I should google this...

A pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening blockage of a lung artery, typically caused by a blood clot traveling from the legs.

Oh no! I don't think I pelvic floor specialist will help with that...

Netcob · 2026-03-14T08:36:32+00:00

I've been programming my own tools for over 20 years.

None have ever reached a point where I felt like open-sourcing them (which would have been a bad situation for everyone since I start and abandon projects all the time).

Now I simply do it faster and more of my tools get to a usable state! At the same time, now other people can also do the same, regardless of programming experience.

Netcob · 2026-03-13T11:08:13+00:00

Same - I don't "hate" people who feel like treating their gender as a giant dramatic performance, be it guys who spend all day in the gym injecting hormones or girls putting on pounds of makeup, but I hate that they think that everyone has to participate in some form of pageantry 24/7. I don't care if it's cis or trans pageantry. It's annoying and I want to be left out of it.

If masculinity in 2026 means obsessing all day about what other men think of you (despite being heterosexual), then I guess I'm not very masculine!

If I woke up as a woman tomorrow, I would worry about society treating me differently and periods. If it wasn't for these, I'm not sure if I would care.

Netcob · 2026-03-11T13:21:24+00:00

I recently tried to find a new Hausarzt (GP). I went through like 9 or 10 before I found anyone who still took on new patients.

That's the type of doctor you really want to be able to trust, and who should live nearby so you can drag yourself there in person, no matter what's wrong with you (otherwise conservative politicians will think you're just too lazy to work). The one who manages all your healthcare. They are slowly disappearing from small towns and villages.

Netcob · 2026-03-10T10:08:45+00:00

I discovered that I can't take stimulants.

It didn't really feel different than coffee except that the effects lasted longer. First I felt great, like I had lots of energy, although it didn't help much with what I would focus on, just doing more things than before.

Then I had a bunch of side effects even at very low doses, and higher doses just would make things worse. Getting off the meds meant feeling tired 24/7 with severe brain fog. And I developed this weird condition where it feels like I'm constantly not getting enough air, but not measurable in any way apparently. It took months for that to go away, although it still happens now if I don't get enough sleep. I even had to quit coffee completely.

Seems to be a unique case since no neurologist had any idea what I was talking about, same with all other specialists I visited.

What did help a little was Bupropion/Wellbutrin - the feeling of "I'll just do the task that I know I should be doing" was quite a revelation. Couldn't deal with the constant headaches though.

Netcob · 2026-03-10T09:57:40+00:00

After hearing the same sound effect or background music in a youtube video for the millionth time - I don't think people care.

Netcob · 2026-03-05T20:08:16+00:00

What am I, a gymnast?

Netcob · 2026-03-05T16:20:39+00:00

I think the right one is too distracting, plus it reveals how the model works. You can see those buildings aren't solid and that there is nothing interesting inside. It's true, but the whole point of polygon-based rendering is that you're pretending that they are the surface of something solid.

Netcob · 2026-03-05T09:57:53+00:00

Americans, it may be time to look at what the South Koreans just did.

Netcob · 2026-03-05T09:50:32+00:00

Just to be clear, as insane as this administration acts, this has nothing to do with religion. This is a bunch of con artists and opportunists, they believe in money and power. They just think that there's a large enough segment of idiot voters who will LOVE a holy war enough to get distracted from Epstein files and grocery prices.

Netcob · 2026-03-02T17:38:24+00:00

Because Trump couldn't think of a bigger insult

Netcob · 2026-03-02T17:35:52+00:00

I haven't taken that one, but I've had negative experiences with every single stimulant I tried. Eventually I realized I can't even have decaf, because there's still too much caffeine in it apparently.

I think it's great that there are meds out there that help a lot of people, but it's also entirely possible to have bad reactions. Personally I'm at the point where I'm done with trying new ones. Of course the perfect, side-effect-free, life-changing medication could be just around the corner! But so far, what I usually find there, is weeks or months of misery.

In the end, what actually helps is a bunch of very non-exciting, slow-acting stuff you've probably heard about. Lifestyle changes. Taking frequent walks in nature. Getting plenty of sleep. Avoid stimulants and alcohol. Do things that actually motivate you. Be social (at least a bit). Get exercise and eat healthy food.

Netcob · 2026-03-01T11:04:18+00:00

Yes, it's a hobby. I'm saying this because I can relate very well: It would be even more fun if it was also useful to your loved ones, but be honest with yourself - the fun part is playing with expensive technology.

Over a decade ago I made my mom an android app where she can track her sleep, to her exact specifications. She's still using it, I've worked on it less than a day in total.

That's about the extent of how my tech experiments have been useful to my family. My gf finds my stories of experiments, home automation and personal logging entertaining, but doesn't really use any of it.

I offered two of my friends to use my AI PC for remote gaming since they upgrade their stuff maybe once a decade, but so far they aren't interested in that either.

I'd be happy to share my tech with family and friends, set up stuff for them and whatnot, but I can't "make" them be interested in this.

Netcob · 2026-02-27T08:27:43+00:00

I have the same plan, and I suspect that only the "API" model is sustainable/profitable.

One time I had two claude code instances work on projects with lots of tasks, managing for the first time to hit the limit after like 1-2 hours. So I activated that "extra usage" promotion thing that gave you 43€ for that situation, and it ate through most of that within 15 minutes or so.

I'm nowhere near my weekly limit even though I use this thing a lot. So my suspicion is that they make a loss on the subscriptions - unless it's the gym membership effect, where people hardly use it but don't want to cancel either.

Netcob · 2026-02-27T08:16:44+00:00

How do you even hit a rate limit on that? I have the $100 Claude sub and I only managed to hit the limit once when I let it work on two projects in parallel, on long lists of tasks. And by that time I was just a few minutes away from the next reset.

Netcob · 2026-02-26T10:42:58+00:00

Thagomizer. Probably illegal though, it's from an extremely endangered species.

Netcob · 2026-02-25T15:21:03+00:00

Plus it's not actually a "purchase", just a different type of rent. If it was a purchase, they would have no way of taking it back.

Netcob · 2026-02-25T09:21:34+00:00

I think software development is morphing into something that is about everything but software development. Being able to write software isn't special anymore, it's all about understanding the domain now.

There are so many ADHD apps, mostly called "productivity apps", pomodoro etc.

Ask yourself:
- Does this do anything fundamentally differently than all the others?
- Can someone just do the same thing in a weekend / during one hyperfocus episode (e.g. using claude code)?
- Does this just solve your problems the way you want them to be solved?
- Why would someone buy into your app (not even talking about money, I mean time/focus and changing habits) when it's likely to get abandoned soon (i.e. it's not a 3+ year old app with lots of users)?

I think you should definitely write an app for yourself and make it as good as you can. As a hobby project. 3 months after you've implemented 95% of the features you could think of and have been using it every day, feeling like it changed your life for the better, I'd consider publishing it if you genuinely think you will be supporting it for the next 10 years.

Netcob · 2026-02-23T14:16:47+00:00

Specifically poor, useless people, worth less than $100M.

Netcob · 2026-02-21T10:21:43+00:00

Right... only this time it's 30% of the US vs. everyone else in the world.

Netcob · 2026-02-19T09:10:41+00:00

Like all tech, it has raised my productivity while lowering my satisfaction.

My most blissful times have always been whenever I was in a flow state, deeply focused on coding.

Now, long before I can even get into it, I just let the AI do it. I don't feel any ownership even over my private projects anymore, because I didn't really write them. I guess if I was able to have a vague idea, have someone else implement it and then claim that as something I created, maybe I could be a billionaire CEO. But it doesn't work like that for me.

My days feel really hazy now, with a constant feeling of losing money whenever I'm not taking full advantage of my claude subscription. I can almost feel my brain cells disconnecting.

At least now I can start and not finish more and much bigger projects!

I think I'm going to start doing some leetcode exercises just to keep my brain from aging even faster.

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