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I reckon you'd be wrong. It cost $1,000,000,000 to own a computer for baby boomers. I have (depending on how you count) between 3 (PCs - 2 mac and a Windows), and 11 (3 PCs, 2 phones, 2 console, an appleTV, 2 iPads and a Kindle). That was impossible for my parents, heck for 18 year old me. People think life is harder now because the equations of life are: * Happiness = Reality - Expectation.
* Success = MAXIMUM_POSSIBLE_WE_ARE_EXPOSED_TO - what I achieve. Most people expect a lot these days, and get slightly less and as a result are miserable. On top of that, MAXIMUM_POSSIBLE_WE_ARE_EXPOSED_TO has increased, as we have more means of communication. In mathematical terms, the gap between the each of these values of a good life:
1. The absolute highest possible value
2. The MEAN existence.
3. The MEDIAN existence is increasing. In 1970, there were lots of limits. Today, you can be a YouTube star at home. As some people have it really good, this bumps the maximum and mean values, whereas the median hasn't moved as much since 1970l even though it has increased. As examples, there are people like Casey Neistat and various Vloggers that live seemingly great lives. There are pro skaters, pro-surfers, musicians, actors, and then the tech billionaires. There are digital nomads, off-the-griders and other niche communties, and I'm sitting here reading Hacker news. But that is BECAUSE we have just so many more options today. We also live in a world where the possibilities are vast - from travel (I have been to every continent except Antarctica), to work (so many more jobs in niche areas), to lifestyle, range of hobbies, foods available (baby boomers thought Pizza and pasta where exotic), even better COFFEE. As there is so much possible, and the hours in week has remained static, we all fall short of the MAXIMUM_POSSIBLE_WE_ARE_EXPOSED_TO by a very long margin. No one is eating enough new or interesting foods, has enough cool hobbies they get paid for, plays enough games, has enough sex or spare time or earns Zuckerberg money - and by no one I mean no one person can ever achieve all of those things at once, so when we compare someone else's 100% dedication to our 0.1%, we feel inadequate. But man, what a world! I am in Australia, writing a response to a person who commented on a system hosted in the USA that was impossible in 1970, using a pocket computer I use to communicate with literally the WORLD, about an article published in USA Today today (well, in some ways technically yesterday as I am a day in front of the west coast of the USA) that would never have reached my country in 1970. What is that worth? Certainly not nothing, even if many people deluded believe they would rather the 3 bedroom house in 1970 without a computer, air conditioning or the internet, not to mention the raft of socially limiting conditions. Rant over! |
What seemingly great times we live in indeed.