I applied to the most recent winter YC batch with the idea of, I want to help people put tech down and plug back into the world. Sadly, they weren't interested as it won't make 1 billion dollars in a few years for them to make bank on.
I think purely the attention companies get at demo day would have been a very powerful thing and I know there are countless tech types the world around that are fed up with technology in front of them all the time (and it's nothing new, I knew a programmer in the late 90s that got rid of his computer, then his game consoles, then his television because he just didn't want to be around the stuff outside of work). I mean, look at how many CS types buy hobby farms or talk about someday buying hobby farms. Look at a lot of the van life and tiny home types, same kinda thing.
I would love to help people take a step away from tech, if anything just to help myself.
Here's a snippet of something I wrote in 2017, it's probably the first time I really put thought into ME and tech
>In 1995 when I discovered the internet we got 60 hours a month, shortly after we got 120 hours a month. If the weather was nice you didn't give a shit about the internet, you were outside. If the weather was bad you'd connect to the internet, get lost in the text of a MUD. I remember the first time I saw an image on a website, the first time I saw video on a computer.
Here's another bit, this grows and evolves in me almost daily
>I've got 21st century burnout. I'm not alone, I know I'm not. I've got two friends that are of a similar mind. I want to live in a world where community is a thing, where life is simple, where the only real concerns are who's bringing what to the block party or what book I want to read next.
What's really crazy is just look at video games, the time we spend in video games is dumbfounding
>ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX BILLION HOURS A YEAR. That's 17,808,219 man-YEARS spent on video games annually. 17 million years wasted every year playing video games. Seventeen MILLION.
I break that out, using great works we've done, to show what we might accomplish if we just put down video games
And that doesn't include the obscene amounts of time people, hell I, spend on Instagram, Facebook, HN, Reddit, Tinder-like apps, sending gifs and memes in a dozen message/chat threads.
They're plugged into the highly curated social media shares of people they went to grade school with and haven't seen in 15 years, or worse they're plugged into the curated 'life' of complete strangers.
This is leading to anxiety, depression and even suicides
Anxiety, depression and suicides are nothing new. I don't blame on either ordinary or online social interaction. Instead I think social interaction is healthy, given it has a good quality, whether it's online or not.
A quick search gave me the information that death by suicide is going down. If there is an increase in anxiety and depression, I see no reason to blame social media. If used in a good way, social media make us feel well.
I think purely the attention companies get at demo day would have been a very powerful thing and I know there are countless tech types the world around that are fed up with technology in front of them all the time (and it's nothing new, I knew a programmer in the late 90s that got rid of his computer, then his game consoles, then his television because he just didn't want to be around the stuff outside of work). I mean, look at how many CS types buy hobby farms or talk about someday buying hobby farms. Look at a lot of the van life and tiny home types, same kinda thing.
I would love to help people take a step away from tech, if anything just to help myself.
Here's a snippet of something I wrote in 2017, it's probably the first time I really put thought into ME and tech
>In 1995 when I discovered the internet we got 60 hours a month, shortly after we got 120 hours a month. If the weather was nice you didn't give a shit about the internet, you were outside. If the weather was bad you'd connect to the internet, get lost in the text of a MUD. I remember the first time I saw an image on a website, the first time I saw video on a computer.
Here's another bit, this grows and evolves in me almost daily
>I've got 21st century burnout. I'm not alone, I know I'm not. I've got two friends that are of a similar mind. I want to live in a world where community is a thing, where life is simple, where the only real concerns are who's bringing what to the block party or what book I want to read next.
https://www.ryanmercer.com/ryansthoughts/2017/2/13/i-miss-th...
What's really crazy is just look at video games, the time we spend in video games is dumbfounding
>ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX BILLION HOURS A YEAR. That's 17,808,219 man-YEARS spent on video games annually. 17 million years wasted every year playing video games. Seventeen MILLION.
I break that out, using great works we've done, to show what we might accomplish if we just put down video games
https://www.ryanmercer.com/ryansthoughts/2016/8/2/humanitys-...
And that doesn't include the obscene amounts of time people, hell I, spend on Instagram, Facebook, HN, Reddit, Tinder-like apps, sending gifs and memes in a dozen message/chat threads.
We've gotta do something about this.