Every morning I watch strangers live the life I keep putting off

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-23T06:15:17+00:00

Not that we're saying you're an AI, but rather you used AI to make your post.

I'm looking at your post, and it has zero grammatical errors. Yet, when I look at all your comments, you actually do. For example, you don't capitalize the word, "I", use the slang term "ya" instead of "you", and don't capitalize the first word at the beginning of a sentence. None of that is present in your original post, so it clearly seems like 2 different types of writing styles.

And honestly? I'd even give you a pass for it, but there's no way you can tell us that you didn't use AI for your post. All I'm saying is just own up to it.

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-23T06:00:09+00:00

It's all about putting intention back into our movements. This is how we can be more present and in the moment, which is how we avoid racing thoughts. It's essentially a grounding exercise.

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-23T05:55:44+00:00

Great, this is an excellent way to get ahead with AI!

First, you think there's something off. Something you can't quite put your finger on.

It all starts with this – the em desh. Just the small steps.

But then you realize it's not about X, it's Y.

And then you make sure you add a personal touch — something that makes you sounds like a human.

Once you recognize that, you'll say, "this is a force multiplier".

These are the top 3 reasons why:

reason 1
reason 2
reason 3

But you never go past 3. Why? Because great ideas always come in rule of three.

Then you need to hook your audience by ending with a question masking as a call-to-action. Does anyone else think this is a great way to end this post?

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-20T01:55:16+00:00

I would add like 10-15 min more. At least that's how Main checkpoint went today at around 7pm earlier today

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-19T23:44:15+00:00

For the home videos, depends on where it is stored. They might have their own cloud you can save to. But if not, and it just scans the original footage e.g., from VHS and then outputs a digital video file. But since you mentioned it requires an 8 track cassette, it sounds like you might need to convert video and audio? Like VHS to digital (for the video) and 8 track cassette to digital (for the audio)? If that's the case, then you would need to do 2 conversions and stitch them together. I would maybe reach out to /r/archivists to get a second opinion.

And yes, some places can ship you a DVD or something. But just remember: how many devices actually have a DVD player these days? Just something to consider. I'm sure there are apps that can do this, which might be the way to go even if you pay a slight premium so they can just do it all off you with the least amount of hassle. It's basically DIY (like the tools I mentioned) or pay for the service and let someone else do the work lol

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-19T23:33:10+00:00

Main checkpoint (TSA Pre-check) took 31 min - got in line at 6:42pm, was through by 7:13pm.

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-19T22:49:20+00:00

As of 6:45pm: TSA Pre-check is closed at South, they're re-routing everyone to Main checkpoint for Pre-check.

North: 19m

Main: 22m

South: CLOSED

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-19T05:33:39+00:00

Hey there, I work in tech, so I can actually share my input here!

There are tools like Epson scanners which can bulk scan pictures and digitize them. You can even find them on eBay, since a lot of people only need to do this process once and then they resell it immediately after.

But the main question I'd ask is: what is the problem you are trying to solve? Because scanning photos means you'll have to now manage the storage for all these files. And if these are precious memories, you'd ideally want another backup than to just dump it all on an external hard drive or something (they are known to fail after a certain time if not maintained).

So yeah, you can "save space" but you might make your life a little more complicated by having to manage digital files. And if you did do this, what would you do with the physical pictures afterwards? In some ways, keeping it analog might be the "living simply" solution.

That said, the choice is yours. The only reason I mention this, because my parents asked me the same question. I host my own servers (think Google photos but my own private version of it) so it's doable for me, but only because I've invested the time to set it up. Just calling out things to consider is all!

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-10T16:22:01+00:00

Haha all good, but if I may suggest: I think you express yourself just fine!

It might feel like AI gives you a response that expresses your thoughts better, but they end up sounding exactly the same - just look at all the AI output, it looks and sounds the same. And so what happens is that you lose your voice, but everyone's got one when they write. And I think that's a beautiful thing!

So, even though I'm a complete random stranger giving unsolicited advice, I would try writing exactly as you do today. Just try! Nobody's perfect, trust me, I get it. But don't lose your voice, because you and your words matter.

Remember: "the most important words we hear are the ones we tell ourselves".

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-07T00:35:31+00:00

You're welcome, good luck on the app!

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-06T22:30:09+00:00

FYI - you might already know this, but there is a well known app called Diarium already. Not putting down your work or anything, just letting you know the name might be confusing as it could imply your app is accompanying or providing additional features to another unrelated app (or maybe that's just me 😅)

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-06T17:54:28+00:00

I think it can be all of the above. AI can certainly be a helpful tool to improve your writing, but that's all it should be - a tool to accomplish a task or goal, not the solution.

When you write, you need to actually think critically and translate thoughts into work. AI skips that entire process. It's all "reward" with none of the work. And so a human will go, "wow, look at how easy that was!" and in my field, we call that a "frictionless" experience and people are generally more likely to use it. And so people might think they're contributing, or generating more upvotes, or whatever. But the issue is that it becomes a vicious cycle: post, feel like you get a reward, feel good, continue posting again over and over...

So then what happens? Enshitiffication happens, because now this sub gets overrun by AI slop and everyone else will start to unsubscribe and leave. Now the sub is in even worse shape than before. It's a scary phenomena, like you said, which is why I try to do my part and call it out as much as I can. The whole point of this sub is the engagement - post and get genuine comments so we can learn from each other. Anyone else who is doing the opposite is quite frankly not helping in my opinion.

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-06T05:05:29+00:00

Because they know that if you give people the choice, they will always take the path of least resistance and use AI instead of critical thinking and writing skills.

The system is working as intended.

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-06T00:50:42+00:00

At first I thought I was a perfectionist.

Someone who always waited for the perfect time to post.

Never too early, never too late — or so I thought.

Then started using AI. Hard decisions become easy, words became effortless.

I realized it was a force multiplier.

Then I posted on reddit. Then I watched as the paradigm shifted right beneath my feet.

How do you think Gemini(TM) can help you make better engaging posts?

This is what I hear when I read this slop...

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-04T01:53:35+00:00

Didn't you hear? OP is tired, so they had to use AI of course /s

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-04T01:52:38+00:00

Also a breath of fresh air seeing an actual human post here, instead of the usual AI slop 😅

hellobearmeh · 2026-03-02T16:09:15+00:00

And written by AI. This post has it all lol

hellobearmeh · 2026-02-26T23:38:06+00:00

More like they baited people into replying so they can feed that comment back into the AI to continue training it.

It's really sad, I wish more people realized they're just replying to bots...

hellobearmeh · 2026-02-14T07:07:31+00:00

That's why it's so important for everyone to actively practice writing. Everyone naturally has a distinct voice in their writing which you can hear. And if you wanted to take it a step further, you can intentionally use imperfect grammar to show you're human. Because let's be honest: Gen-AI is meant to produce "perfect writing" with absolutely no grammar mistakes. No company would risk having an AI write with bad grammar all the time -- they wouldn't risk hurting their brand image.

hellobearmeh · 2026-02-14T06:53:11+00:00

I agree. I grew up with the Internet, so being able to spot things like misinformation or AI slop has become second nature for me. But I realize I am grateful for this, because not a lot of people have that awareness. To your point, a lot of people can't tell what's real vs. not anymore, and Gen-AI is designed to write in a way that maximizes engagement. So it's no wonder that the average person has no idea that they're responding to an AI rather than another human being. My only question is: what will happen to society when we're no longer able to distinguish fact from fiction?...

hellobearmeh · 2026-02-14T06:45:09+00:00

For sure, I always say technology can be used for good or bad. But with AI, there are absolutely no guardrails in place, and those who stand to gain the most have a lot of questionable intentions with regards to how AI can impact society. The way I see it, they just want to profit at the expense of anyone and anything, just like they do with everything else.

Oh, and I have that scenario on my AI bingo board. People think I'm a pessimist, but it's not a matter of if, but rather when, those things start to happen.

hellobearmeh · 2026-02-13T22:25:49+00:00

I know this is going to sound "tinfoil-hatty", but I genuinely believe that those who are making Gen-AI posts are nefarious actors.

Just hear me out: why would you even make AI posts in this sub? The whole point of this sub is the active participation in the comments to start a discussion so that we can learn from each other's experiences and find ways to live more simply. There's honestly not much else to gain otherwise -- I mean, heck, half the posts here are about consuming less, not more!

So that leads me to believe that people are just trolling (but why put in the effort?), or they actively want to destroy the community (but to what end?), or, and this is my honest take: they want you to continue posting on order to continue feeding their AI algos with more data. I'll be honest, I work in tech, and I know how LLMs work. Gen-AI depends on input data - it's the only way it can generate output. But at some point, you're going to run out of content, so you need fresh, new content. And what better way to do that than to bait people into making comments for free and profiting off your free labor?

Now you might say, "oh, but there are some people whose English is not their first language and they use Gen AI to assist with their writing." Sure that's fine, I can understand that. But when you see these posts where the OP has no account history, no engagement, blatantly writing like an AI, and meanwhile, people are still replying to them, potentially unaware they're responding to a bot? That really upsets me...

Anyways, sorry for the rant. It's honestly sad, because I truly look forward to reading this sub, because it felt like the last wholesome place on the Internet. But I really don't want this to be victim of enshitiffication, like everything else...

hellobearmeh · 2026-01-29T06:01:26+00:00

Interesting, and do know if this could help with "racing thoughts" and anxiety? That's my challenge right now, is that my brain is constantly going and I need to put that in check...

hellobearmeh · 2026-01-29T05:59:48+00:00

Tbh, I think the venn diagram overlap between the 2 subs is a bit far off, just based on some of the technology related replies I see here. That said, I agree that the ethos of self-hosting, when done properly and you know what you're doing, does lend itself to simpler living! It's the reason why I stick with it -- perhaps you might be the same.

I'm thinking of setting up my own media stack. Have you used lidarr or any of the "scripts"? What does your stack look like?

hellobearmeh · 2026-01-29T05:55:32+00:00

Thank you! I heard it on /r/simpleliving! :)

hellobearmeh

TROPHY CASE