
Teardown: Casper’s Clever Little Nightlight - retSava
https://blog.bolt.io/casper-glow-e4f8819376d7
======
yeutterg
I bought one, as I sell a product with a similar use case [0].

My impressions: The overall concept is great. The UX is cool, but some of the
UX choices are strange to me. For example, automatically dimming down when you
turn the light on (you have to press the button to pause it) vs. the other way
around. It works well as a wake-up light, although I would have preferred
something higher-blue for the morning.

There's really nothing "low-blue" about this light compared to other 2700K LED
lights, other than the fact that it has a dimmer built in. The 2700K diodes
they chose don't have better color quality than normal LED bulbs. It has
"amber" (somewhere around 2000-2200K) LEDs at the very bottom end of the range
that have great color quality, but they are too dim for anything but
navigating to the bathroom at night.

They are modulating the LEDs with PWM at a very high frequency, almost 8 kHz.
That's better than most of today's smart lighting by far. There's still debate
about 100% flicker actually being healthy, even at higher frequencies.

For the lighting nerds, I captured photometric and flicker measurements, which
you can review at [1].

Overall, I think Casper's lamp is a good effort. I hope future versions can
improve the color quality, some of the interactions, and the overall
healthiness of the light compared to regular lighting.

[0] Bedtime Bulb: [https://bedtimebulb.com/](https://bedtimebulb.com/)

[1] Casper Glow Photometrics:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8n0way6xqwbqcd/Casper%20Glow%20Ph...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8n0way6xqwbqcd/Casper%20Glow%20Photometry.pdf?dl=0)

~~~
degenerate
I use flux and I know the importance of eliminating blue wavelength before
bed. What I don't understand is the need to eliminate green, and this graph on
your site doesn't help much in understanding that:
[https://i.imgur.com/fHJKxWA.png](https://i.imgur.com/fHJKxWA.png) (
_rehosting on imgur for short URL_ )

I don't know what the grey area is, and there are no axis so I am unsure what
this graph is even showing me. Also, wouldn't eliminating "orange" light be
just as important (according to the graph you provided), since it seems to
follow the same path as green?

Everything else makes sense on the page, it's the graph that threw me.

~~~
geofft
"Orange," "green," etc. in those graphs are just different models of
lightbulbs. (Maybe using patterns - dotted, dashed, etc. lines - would have
been clearer than overloading color.) For colors, look at the frequencies on
the X-axis.

Anyway, the trick is that photoreceptor cells are sensitive to a range of
frequencies, with weights centered on a particular color, and return a single
floating-point output. So your blue cones cannot distinguish bright green and
dim blue - that's only calculated by taking the input of the green cones into
account, too. See
[https://i.stack.imgur.com/5snTb.png](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5snTb.png) for
what each cone's sensitivity looks like (in this graph, lines are light
_received_ by each cone, and the colors are semi-meaningful). If the goal is
to not stimulate the blue cones at all, you need to emit as close to pure red
light as possible. The wavelength of your light as measured by the single
average or dominant color isn't as interesting as the _spectrum_ of all light
it emits and how much that overlaps with blue sensitivity.

~~~
yeutterg
One thing to point out is that the circadian rhythm is (largely) not directly
influenced by the cones or rods (to our current knowledge). It is a third set
of photoreceptors, the ipRGCs, which detect blue/green light and provide input
to the circadian rhythm in the pineal gland/suprachiasmatic nucleus. The gray
area is the sensitivity of the ipRGCs.

Also, that's a good point about the colors vs. dotted/dashed lines. I'll look
into that, thanks!

~~~
herf
We know the ipRGCs receive cone and rod inputs and that non-melanopsin
responses (from rods and cones) drive a lot of the reaction at lower light
levels.

~~~
yeutterg
Thanks for the clarification, Michael!

------
iainmerrick
More home gadgets should be like this. No real rocket science inside, just
excellent design and good implementation. _Optional_ smart Bluetooth stuff,
completely usable just with minimal buttons and gestures. Doesn’t try to take
over every household task, just tries to do one thing well.

Anybody could make products like this if they just took enough time and care
over it. Hardly anybody ever does. (IKEA comes to mind as another good
example, and maybe Philips’ Hue lights.)

 _[Edit to add:_ I have absolutely no connection with any products or
companies I’ve mentioned, in case this comes across as marketing spam! I’m
just constantly frustrated at crappy and/or invasive “smart home” devices, so
it’s refreshing to see somebody take what seems to me exactly the correct
approach, and apparently pull it off very well.]

~~~
wmeredith
> Anybody could make products like this if they just took enough time and care

Name a resource more precious than time and one more scarce than care. What
you're talking about is HARD to do.

~~~
iainmerrick
Yeah, I guess it’s pretty much a “worse is better” thing. Worse products are
faster to market and cheaper, so why waste time and money trying to do it
“right”?

~~~
lotsofpulp
If your customer can't afford a product done "right", that is also an issue.

------
Hasz
Hahaha cost effective design. There's no way in hell that thing is even
remotely cheap, or optimized. Chips from TI, Tons of hand assembly, custom
aluminum extrusion, seamless, no mold mark shell... This thing was not cheap.
They even splurged for an ENIG finish!

That being said, it could be done for waaay less if you're willing to
compromise on just a few features.

Single LED COB array at the base. Gets rid of ~7 parts (6 pcb Led array, the
custom aluminum extrusion, plus all the flax flexes, plus a fair amount of
hand assembly. Everything on a single PCB.

Can still do the twist dimming + everything else, the light will just have an
orientation.

~~~
danimal88
TI chips can be quite affordable.

TBH, 'Custom aluminum extrusion' \- this is not a big deal at all. In China,
the tool for this is < $1k and for what appears to be about 6 inches, perhaps
its a dollar's worth a material if it was WAY overpriced, most likely less
than 50 cents. And the tool will last for a long time...

~~~
Hasz
Any resources on who to go to to get custom aluminum extrusion? Always assumed
it was too expensive, but I was fortunately wrong!

As far as the chips go... I've had much better luck with Asian chip
manufacturers -- generally about 1/3 the cost for similar parts. Most have a
decent english datasheet. LCSC is a good place to find them.

~~~
danimal88
We basically just looked on Alibaba for factories that could do all the metal
work that we needed, sent them a quotation package, set up a tour, confirmed
their ISO:9001, negotiated terms, and were off to the races. If you have a CM
where everything is received for final delivery it helps as they can do your
IQC so your metal supplier accountability is baked in. At least thats what has
worked for us.

~~~
Hasz
Can I ask what you were making?

~~~
danimal88
[https://flair.co](https://flair.co)

------
odorousrex
Did anyone else notice the price has seem to have gone up $10 in the past
hour?

I could've sworn when I read this initially, it was $89! I had some stuff to
do so kind of filed it away to look at later and now it is selling for $99.

Also, this article seems like an advertisement/blogspam, plus with the sudden
price change - I'm very suspicious.

That said, it looks like a really neat product. My daughter has sleep issues
(falling asleep - staying asleep) and we've tried all sorts of different
lighting to help (she can't stand full darkness) and I'm wondering if a self
dimming bedtime lamp like this might help her.

~~~
traek
> Also, this article seems like an advertisement/blogspam

It's written by Bolt, a hardware-focused VC which was founded by some pretty
technical people and has a history of publishing teardowns (e.g. the Juicero
one[0] which was popular here on HN a while back).

[0] [https://medium.com/@BenEinstein/heres-why-juicero-s-press-
is...](https://medium.com/@BenEinstein/heres-why-juicero-s-press-is-so-
expensive-6add74594e50)

~~~
pastor_elm
Casper has a history with trying to dictate the terms of viral marketing. I
would be suspicious of even hacker news comments.

>In 2015, Casper CEO Philip Krim had a months-long email conversation with one
of the sites’ founders, sounding like he was ready for Casper to play ball.

>“Currently you actively endorse a competing product on our review page,” Krim
wrote in one email, which was made public in court filings. “What can we do to
not have you endorse another product as superior to ours?”[0]

[https://www.recode.net/2017/9/23/13153814/casper-
sleepopolis...](https://www.recode.net/2017/9/23/13153814/casper-sleepopolis-
lawsuits-mattress-reviews)

------
dspig
> As a bedside object, I really appreciate the lack of branding and visual
> clutter on the device.

Oh yes! Last thing before bed I wonder “why did I just have to see the name of
the manufacturer of my bathroom taps?”. They are good taps but...

~~~
eeeeeeeeeeeee
This bugs me with just about everything. Manufacturers shouldn’t put visible
branding on things unless that version is offered at a discount compared to
the unbranded version.

~~~
criddell
Louis Vuitton and Rolex say what?

~~~
codeulike
They say 'haha people will pay loads to see our names on stuff even if there's
no other discernible difference in quality! haha conspicuous consumption and
class signalling are great! lol'

~~~
jrockway
Rolex makes some pretty high-quality watches.

~~~
criddell
Sure, but their price is entirely about what people are willing to pay and not
at all connected to the cost of production. There are some Swiss watches that
take an incredible amount of work by highly skilled craftsmen to make, but
that's not Rolex. They're cranking out a million watches every year thanks to
automation.

~~~
haggy
> their price is entirely about what people are willing to pay and not at all
> connected to the cost of production

You have a source on that?

~~~
criddell
The watches are not expensive to make, they are expensive to sell. The
marketing and sales costs are going to be higher than the actual
manufacturing.

This is one estimate saying it's between $300 and $800:

[https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-actually-cost-
Rolex-t...](https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-actually-cost-Rolex-to-
make-a-watch-i-e-aside-from-the-stones-and-precious-metals-themselves-what-is-
the-manufacturing-cost-and-what-is-the-profit-margin)

Even if that's wrong, it's certainly under $1000. Gold ones will be higher, of
course.

------
donpdonp
Making the battery removable by the user seems like a minimum effort for
reducing e-waste and the battery is a common form factor (18650). Someday the
path will need to move from manufacturer -> consumer -> landfill to
manufacturer -> consumer -> manufacturer -> landfill where part of the device
cost covers the reprocessing of materials, especially toxic materials.

~~~
intopieces
That is, if the manufacturer is still in business when it's time to throw away
the device.

This is one reason why the 'leasing' model for complex gadgets (like phones)
appeals to me in an environmental sense. When Apple/VZW/AT&T take back a
device, at least they have the resources and incentive to do something better
than toss it in a landfill.

~~~
shaklee3
Huh? What phone manufacturer are you worried about going out of business?

~~~
cr0sh
> What phone manufacturer are you worried about going out of business?

Every single one of them could go out of business in the future.

It happens all the time to companies you'd think were "too big to fail":

    
    
      MCI
      Sears
      Montgomery Wards
      Mervyn's
      Gemco
      Best
      Pioneer Chicken
      Radio Shack
      Sierra Online
      Pan Am
      Atari
      Commodore
    

I haven't even mentioned the number of car companies that have bit the dust,
that people never thought they'd go away.

All of these can go away - and likely will go away.

It's quite possible that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and many others might go
away.

I'm honestly surprised that IBM is still around. Sun Microsystems is gone
(more or less - they are part of Oracle now, mainly as a name - you might know
about the language they developed called "Java"); so is Silicon Graphics...

Apple of course still exists - but it wasn't that long ago that Microsoft had
to pump some cash into them just to keep them going so that they wouldn't be
accused of being a monopoly (or something of that nature). It's kinda funny,
given where Apple is today - and where Microsoft is as well...

Yeah - any and all of these companies can go away - and in fact are likely to.

That's just the way the world is.

------
snops
A quite high quality device by the looks of it, no wonder it is $90!

Interesting to see that each LED is individually dimmable when the device is
not a display (the 3 LED drivers are 16 channels each, and there are 48 LEDs
total). Looking at the animations on the article, you should only need 8
channels or so to get the top to bottom effect, using a higher voltage boost
to get the LEDs as series strings. It's a fairly expensive LED driver to have
that many of them, but I guess designing it that way adds flexibility in
future. (A "flickering candle" effect maybe?).

The use of the discrete Nordic IC rather than a module definitely suggests a
higher volume product to justify the cert costs, especially as the device is
not pushed for space.

Finally, the power management side is also quite premium, with a high current
switching battery charger. Looking at another review[1], it appears to come
with a mains adaptor permenantly wired to the base, rather than use Micro USB.
As the pogo pins are quite small, the mains adaptor might provide a higher
voltage e.g. 12V to reduce the current through the pins, and so a more
expensive switching charger is used to step this voltage down for the battery.
The battery wiring appears to be doubled up as well for a higher charge
current by using more connector pins, so it can probably charge quickly in 2.5
hours or so (0.5C). Surprised they didn't just use a larger connector and
wiring, again this isn't a small product.

[1] [https://www.macrumors.com/review/casper-glow-
light/](https://www.macrumors.com/review/casper-glow-light/)

~~~
cco
>Interesting to see that each LED is individually dimmable when the device is
not a display...

This might be a feature they ship in the future, "breathing" modes, a sort of
rotating lighting pattern etc could all be shipped later.

------
dpflan
I like the gesture-based interfaces/interactions, they seem natural and
intuitive (no futzing around with buttons or an app).

\- the "twist" (to adjust brightness)

\- "wiggle" (for low light)

What other smart home products exist that are innovating the manual UX for
objects like this?

------
knolan
I really like the idea of this product, if not the price.

We’ve just bought a new home and I want to achieve a minimal bedside. We’ve
also got two very young children and frequently have to get up during the
night. Being able to carry this to their room and sit with them while they
settle down seems lovely.

------
SmellyGeekBoy
I see this is controllable via an app. Does it communicate via the "cloud" or
locally? (Bluetooth etc).

If it is cloud-based, what happens when the service inevitably shuts down?

Edit: Upon further reading it appears that this device has BLE. That's
reassuring, at least.

~~~
djsumdog
I'd personally wait until they're $20 used on eBay, then attempt to reverse-
enginner the protocol so it can be controlled by Python and a Linux box.

~~~
Shakahs
Thank you, because I assume the last step would be open sourcing it. People
like you are what keep hardware going long after the original vendor abandons
it or goes under.

Also, I agree on waiting for eBay, this is a nice device but I can't justify
$99 for it.

------
ethanpil
A great idea from a company trying and hopefully succeeding in not being a one
trick pony, or stuck on their cash cow/core business. Their strategic thinking
is top notch... From the article:

"It is interesting to think about how this might work strategically for
Casper’s business. People don’t buy mattresses very often, and the challenge
for a company like Casper is that it spends a lot of money acquiring a
customer. Once it has sold them a mattress, the relationship would be over if
not for follow-on products (hence pillows, bedding, etc). By launching
additional products, Casper can invite its customers to build a lasting
relationship and spend more money.

For Casper, it is imperative to extend the lifetime value (LTV) of its
customers by continuing to expand its product line, but why the tech
complexity? Perhaps to get people on a software platform? Casper’s Chief
Product Officer Jeff Chapin realistically admits “There are some people who
are never going to download the app and that’s fine.”

------
schnevets
Those gifs are some damn-good marketing! A soft dimming like that always
reminds me of building a "breathing light" with an Arduino.

With something this unique, I'm certain there will be knock-offs available on
Amazon by August. I wonder how Casper will take that into account.

~~~
BubRoss
Casper is basically a marketing company anyway, so they will probably deal
with it using more marketing as well as continuing to slander other companies
that they see as competitors.

------
kndjckt
Hold on. Did they just put their prices up? [https://casper.com/glow-
light/buy/](https://casper.com/glow-light/buy/) . It was $89 a few minutes ago
now it's $99. Demand must be surging!

------
logfromblammo
I don't exactly understand the use case, here. What problem does this solve?
Why should I want to buy this?

Seems like Casper is stretching to find bed-related accessories, if this is
what they came up with first. If anything, I'd want my sleep space to be
_darker_ when I want to sleep. As one might get with motorized blackout window
shades, blinds, or curtains. As it is, I can reach the toilet perfectly fine
on just starlight through windows.

And what kind of fancy expensive night light doesn't have a red/orange mode so
as to not screw up one's night vision?

------
jakobegger
If you don't care about the smarts, I really want to recommend this lamp as an
alternative:
[https://wap.taotronics.com/#/product/product_details?urlKey=...](https://wap.taotronics.com/#/product/product_details?urlKey=ttdl2390fa2f22)

It has no smart anything, it's just a battery powered dimmable lamp with
beautiful light.

Comparison with Casper light:

\- much cheaper

\- has a handle that lets you hang it somewhere

\- charges via micro USB

\- doesn't have auto-off (will shine all night)

~~~
magduf
>doesn't have auto-off (will shine all night)

Sounds like an anti-feature to me; the last thing I want is a light that stays
on all night.

What would be nice is a nightlight that can sense when I get out of bed in the
middle of the night, and light up in red, so I can walk to the bathroom
without running into things, and then turn off again when I get back into bed.

~~~
jakobegger
Yes, it's not the same target audience :)

Are you looking for something like this? [https://www.amazon.com/Aiprov-
Fireproof-Induction-Battery-Po...](https://www.amazon.com/Aiprov-Fireproof-
Induction-Battery-Powered-
Nightlights/dp/B07HH719RL/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?keywords=motion+sensor+night+light+red&qid=1551477179&s=gateway&sr=8-8)

------
eeeeeeeeeeeee
Anyone have any others they would recommend? I’ve set my bedroom lights to
automatically turn on at sunrise, realizing how much I hate the sound of an
alarm clock, but the light is just instantly way too bright. Would prefer
something that gradually increases in brightness over fifteen minutes.

~~~
__david__
This is going to sound glib, but have you tried opening the blinds? Sunrise is
nice and gradual.

~~~
eeeeeeeeeeeee
Unfortunately my bedroom is on the other side of the building, so no direct
sunlight.

~~~
lucb1e
For me, I don't need the sun on my face for it to be easier to get out of bed,
outside light works just fine if there is any.

I'm also not sure how many days it would take for my body to adjust to direct
sunlight and sleep through it using blankets as blockers.

------
jpm_sd
This was a fun read. I don't really 'get' the product, though. Lots of smart
lightbulbs already on the market, with wakeup timer features etc. This is one
you can pick up and carry around? Is that actually better?

Those pogo pins aren't going to last very long.

~~~
lincolnq
I think something that characterizes a lot of stereotypical hacker news
comments is reductionism of a product to its feature list.

A classic one is on the Dropbox 2007 launch post
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224)).

In retrospect, some product ideas are dumb. Others are good. But because we
see this kind of comment so often (really not trying to pick on you!), I
wanted to point out that it might be a good habit for lots of people to notice
if they are trying to describe a product by its list of features, and maybe
think if that is the best way to achieve their goals.

Again, not trying to pick on you in particular, I think that habit is
incredibly common for tech people in particular. And there's a lot positive to
be said about that style of interaction.

~~~
morsch
_No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame._

[https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-
releases-i...](https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-
ipod)

~~~
ceejayoz
There may never be a better example of "what's compelling to techies isn't
necessarily what's compelling to the general public" than that one.

~~~
icebraining
Yes, but CmdrTaco never claimed to be stating anything more than his personal
opinion of the product. Slashdot wasn't HN, people weren't always making
product-market fit predictions and discussing the financial of startups.

~~~
cmdrtaco
rise to my defense!

(Also always lost in the mythologizing of this quote is that the first version
of the iPod was not good. Mechanical click wheel, mac only, it took them a
revision to disprove my statement!)

~~~
icebraining
It would be fair to say that misapprehension grinds my gears a bit:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cmdrtaco+by:icebraining&type=c...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cmdrtaco+by:icebraining&type=comment&dateRange=all)
:)

Since I have your attention, thanks for all the good years of Slashdot! Hope
you're doing well.

------
cf
Would anyone be able to recommend the opposite of this in terms of a wakeup
light? The problem with lots of these bulbs is they aren't very bright and
these days I live in a place that doesn't really get lots of natural light.

~~~
caconym_
I recently bought the donut-shaped Phillips wake-up light and I really like
it, though it is pretty expensive and not as slick as a "new tech" product
like this Casper light.

~~~
lucb1e
My mom got me a Philips wakeup light about ten years ago. If you accidentally
turn it on full when your eyes are adjusted to darkness, it's like being in
the shade and suddenly getting a big mirror of sunlight beamed into your eyes.
(Note that it's obviously not an issue during normal use; the brightness is
the whole point and works as intended to simulate light levels of sunup in an
otherwise unlit room.) I don't know any other light that gets that bright, so
to sibling comments that recommend regular lights, that's definitely not what
GP is asking ("lots of these bulbs is they aren't very bright" and that's
already talking about wakeup lights, not just any lights).

For me personally, it made it easier to get out of bed, but it didn't make me
feel more awake. It lessened the struggle, but I (not a blind test or hard
data) feel like it sometimes made me feel less awake all morning. This made me
pay more attention to sleeping multiples of 1.5 hours instead of just any
amount, which helped a bit, and which I still do today (conversely, I haven't
used the light in years, though I was recently thinking about it again).

Overall, I would recommend to try it, but it was pretty expensive so having 14
days (as one does when buying online in the EU) to return it and get your
money back is recommendable as well.

Edit: this looks like a second iteration of the model I had:
[https://ic.tweakimg.net/ext/i/1289910640.jpeg](https://ic.tweakimg.net/ext/i/1289910640.jpeg)

~~~
caconym_
I wanted to start waking up very early to pursue a creative hobby before work
rather than after when I'm wiped out from the day.

It actually works really well for me. I feel great in the morning and the rest
of the day too. I did not have very healthy hours before, though.

------
Uhhrrr
Is this an ad?

~~~
djsumdog
Yea, pretty much. I wonder if the author was paid by Casper or they genuinely
gave them free advertising. Knowing about Capser's advertising techniques, I'd
guess it was the former.

~~~
steve_adams_86
I suspected bolt invests in them, but I don't see them here:
[https://bolt.io/portfolio](https://bolt.io/portfolio) ...

------
tatoalo
I’ve seen that this is not available in the entire EU, I’ve bought a
similar(under some features) product, the Xiaomi Yeelight bedside lamp but the
power adapter does a pretty weird buzz sound once the lamp is turned off that
I cannot stand.

Does someone knows a similar product that’s available in the EU?

~~~
exhilaration
Could you replace the AC Adapter with something from Amazon? I've bought
universal AC Adapters (with various connectors) to replace bad adapters in the
past.

~~~
tatoalo
The thing is that I purchased the “EU” model, I would have done what you’ve
suggested if I had bought the Chinese version.

I’ll try to find something on amazon though, it literally ruins my sleep,
thanks!

------
gnicholas
We used an iPad with Night Shift to accomplish a similar effect when traveling
with our toddler. I wish there were a web app that let you do this in a more
customizable way (starting color temp, ending color temp, starting brightness,
ending brightness, fade time).

------
danimal88
A friend of mine runs this company, similar but I think actually better for
sleep/circadian rhythms: [https://circadia.health/](https://circadia.health/)

------
yeukhon
I don't trust this company after watching Adam Ruins Everything.

~~~
dpflan
Are you referring to this?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvlA9UxGvSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvlA9UxGvSg)

~~~
yeukhon
Yes

------
acjohnson55
This looks really cool! If it becomes possible to integrate with SmartThings,
I might even be interested in buying one.

------
rhexs
I couldn’t find it anywhere, and am assuming no, but does anyone know if this
has HomeKit support?

~~~
tmincey
Not yet it seems

------
jweir
Can you throw this thing away? Will it degrade in the landfill without being
toxic?

~~~
icebraining
No, please don't throw stuff with batteries into the landfill.

------
Waterluvian
I am captivated by how they nailed a need of mine: navigating Lego at night.

------
amelius
By the way, who wants to sleep close to a strong inductive charging field?

~~~
mixmastamyk
Is that a problem?

------
everyone
yay, more crap! I'll put it next to my juicero!

Yes, this is probably better designed then the juicero. But its still just
more crap.

------
decafbad
"The light has a lot of delightful, simple little details that belie the
amount of engineering behind them."

... A battery. ...

------
lm28469
$90 for a "smart" lamp, $2600 flip phones, ...

Man if this isn't a symptom of gadget/tech bubble on the verge of bursting I
don't know what it is.

~~~
theNJR
For some reason I save the boxes of most of my consumer tech gadgets. Looking
in the closet where I keep them makes feel sort of sick. At myself.

And yet I want this lamp.

Technology addiction. As a caffeine addict, I've 'gone off' it before, and for
three days it's terrible. There is a very physical withdrawal.

With technology, the addiction manifests as a light, ever present anxiety.
Both in the use and acquisition of such products.

I don't know where this all goes.

~~~
djsumdog
What really made me sick was living in an apartment building and seeing the
piles of Amazon boxes in the basement/recycling area. General consumption is a
problem far worse that CO2 emissions. Our e-waste is destroying water supplies
in the African nations it's all shipped to, where kids dig through old
products for any salvageable metals and components. Resist the urge to buy
useless stuff.

~~~
magduf
Are those Amazon boxes really that wasteful? The alternative is probably
people driving to various brick-and-mortar stores to buy these things. How
much carbon emission was avoided by having these people buy from Amazon and
have it all delivered on one truck?

Amazon doesn't just sell unnecessary trinkets, they sell everything, including
everyday items you'd probably buy at Walmart/Target/the mall/etc.

