Weblog: Overcomplicated

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+title = "Overcomplicated"
+date = 2023-01-31T22:18:53
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+
+We take it as a fact that life is simpler for man these days than it was even a
+couple hundred years ago, let alone a thousand years ago. We hear it all the
+time. If we take a closer look to even what has been happening in the last 20 to
+30 years, it might turn out that life might not be getting simpler anymore.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+If we are talking about surviving, then yes, most certainly it has become quite
+simple for people to live to see another day and to avoid many of the natural
+causes of death, even those as simple as starvation and disease. That is, if we
+talk about the developed world from the point of view from which I'll be
+writing, since even in most of the not so developed parts of the world the
+advances of the developed nations have been seeping through.
+
+Mostly of course, life expectancy wasn't that great before not because people
+didn't live until old age, but rather because not many children survived into
+adulthood, or even birth, for that matter. The point, however, is not that, but
+the fact that for one to be able to just survive and live to see another day —
+to not die of starvation or disease, or be killed by wild animals — is pretty
+easy nowadays.
+
+That said, surviving for a man isn't really the goal, but rather the means. Man
+is more complex than a simple animal, he seeks to find meaning in life,
+accomplish great achievements, produce great things and maybe leave something to
+be remembered for, at least by the people closest to him.
+
+So for man to be happy he needs to constantly go through some effort to achieve
+something worth of that effort. It is by this process that men acquire the
+feeling of accomplishment. What changes for each person is what is worth
+achieving. But if something doesn't require much effort then one doesn't feel as
+if they've really achieved it.
+
+On the other hand, if something is difficult but is deemed as not being worth
+one's attention or unnecessary, we try to avoid it. If it cannot be avoided it
+causes one to feel annoyed, stressed, etc.
+
+There are, of course, some factors that cannot be avoided, that are part of the
+physical limitations of life itself. They can be quite unpleasant, but by
+consciously or unconsciously being aware that they absolutely can't be helped
+one doesn't feel as bothered by them as by those things that we know that are
+artificially made difficult.
+
+Now, as I mentioned earlier, covering one's basic needs has really become so
+much simpler that even though most of a man's life in the past was devoted to
+them, nowadays has been relegated to basically just a small fraction of a
+person's day. This is of course great, since it allows man to pursue greater
+achievements that he may set his sight on. It also allows for debauchery and
+degeneracy among those unfortunate people that have bought into the thought that
+happiness and freedom mean indulging in hedonistic activities without
+restrictions, but that is a topic for another day.
+
+Even though those basic tasks have been significantly easier, there are some
+other aspects of life that are becoming more complex than necessary.
+
+Life shouldn't be simple. There should be hardships in life, but, as I
+mentioned, they should be the kinds of hardships through which we accomplish
+something great. Yet modern life is becoming more complex and difficult in
+precisely the wrong ways.
+
+## 'tis actually a rant
+
+It has been a really long introduction for a very simple rant, but I wanted to
+give some context first. 
+
+There are some things that used to be much simpler that are now becoming more
+complex and annoying without any benefit whatsoever.
+
+Probably not all of the examples that I'll list are actually that way in other
+parts of the world (I live in Russia), but I get the feeling from what I see
+online and talking to other people that it is not much different in most of the
+developed (so-called developing countries included) world, and even though some
+examples might be exclusively local phenomena most probably there are different
+examples from other parts of the world that are at least in similar in nature.
+
+It's also not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.
+
+* Electronic or electric crap where it doesn't make any sense. An example of
+  this is the electric seats that now come as standard in some cars. It's much
+  faster and easier to adjust it with ye olde mechanical levers, not to mention
+  that they are more durable than their electric counterparts.
+* It's become nearly impossible to live without a cellphone. You need it for
+  your bank, many online services, and even some offline ones. Online services
+  shove it unto you in the form of totally insecure yet terribly cumbersome SMS
+  2FA; and now you can't even properly dine at some restaurants because to read
+  the menu you now have to scan a goddamned QR code.
+* IoT in general, but especially in consumer and home appliances. There are some
+  appliances which are still easy to find in their "dumb" (or rather
+  non-retarded) versions, but there are others such as TVs which are almost
+  impossible to find without "smart" crap. I don't want my fridge to connect to
+  the internet, I just want it to keep my food cool so that it doesn't spoil. In
+  fact, I don't want anything other than my computer(s), my phone, my home
+  server and my router to connect to the internet. Now that I think about it, I
+  might even want for my phone to not be connected to the internet.
+* (Online) accounts for everything. This has become so bad, that I have to split
+  it into subpoints.
+  - Computers - fortunately, when it comes to general computing devices I don't
+  	use proprietary systems that impose this crap unto me. It still baffles me
+  	the way in which using computers has become so much harder for users of such
+  	consumer-oriented proprietary systems such as Windows. You have to have a M$
+  	account for that and for this, the default is now not a local account but
+  	the M$ account when installing Winblows. I haven't used Windows in a long
+  	time, but I wouldn't be surprised if now you couldn't even use the
+  	non-professional version without first signing-into a M$ server.
+  - Appliances - I sometimes play friends in some bars in gaming consoles. I
+  	remember when playing videogames from a console was as simple as putting the
+  	media and powering it on. Now you are constantly pestered to log in, not to
+  	mention that in most cases you also have to install the game or even
+  	"first-day" updates. Here also comes to mind the case with most
+  	"smart"-anything, such as TVs.
+  - Day-to-day life - this cancer of accounts has been seeping and spreading
+  	into day-to-day real life as well, which is even worse. Now if you make the
+  	mistake of actually giving your phone number for one those discount cards
+  	you suddenly find yourself with an account (even though it might not be
+  	obvious at first) and a lot of SMS spam. But worse of all, government
+  	related accounts. It's okay when online government services are offered as
+  	an **alternative**, but now there are certain things which can't be done at
+  	all without having to register an account in their web services, which are
+  	developed by incompetent government workers that haven't heard the word
+  	security or privacy in their lives.
+* You can't just go into a supermarket and just buy what you need like it used
+  to be, you are bombarded by discount offers, coupons and the like. Just when
+  you are about to pay you are asked if you have their discount or loyalty card
+  and god forbid you don't you are asked if you would like to get it. Every
+  single time.
+* Advertisements everywhere. There's nothing inherently wrong with
+  advertisements in and of themselves, the problem is that they are now
+  everywhere. Websites, supermarkets, apps, home appliances, operating systems,
+  cars, your mail box, your email inbox, etc. they are all filled with
+  advertisements. It's become a circlejerk of everything trying to sell you
+  something. Want to open the car sharing app to rent a car? How about some
+  discount for coffee? Maybe if I wanted to drink some coffee I would have gone
+  to the store or café to buy some.
+
+These are just some of the examples of the way in which so-called "progress" is
+actually making life worse instead of improving it.
+
+We are getting better at certain things, like more efficient engines and more
+powerful computers, but the end experience in most products and services is
+getting worse.
+
+The point of technology is to be used as a tool to give more freedom to people
+and make life simpler. Instead of that, people are becoming less free by being
+hyper-dependent on technology and complicating life all around.
+
+The worst part of all of this is that there is no reason why things should be
+made this way. Not even profit, since even though that seems to be the goal most
+of the time, it doesn't really contribute to making life better for their
+customers so that they actually spend money on things they actually need or
+want. It seems to be that the people that were inventing and making things some
+30 years ago were actually interested in improving the experience of their
+users, be it a simple TV or a car. Now it seems that it's just a matter of who
+has the shiniest new features or whatever is being hyped now.
+
+I do have to wonder what all the developers and engineers that design such
+systems are thinking. Maybe they are told by their management that it is what
+needs to be done, but certainly they must have some agency to know better and do
+better. Not doing anything is better than being complicit in building the
+nightmare that is being built nowadays.
+
+I don't really think that the people that are complicit in this really think
+that this makes their lives better. Even if it brings them money, now that money
+can't be spent on anything that gives you exactly what you need.