To set the table, I am very happy with the last century's improvements in quality of life, productivity, and standard of living. However, there are a few items where we've backslid, or accepted tradeoffs where we're actually worse off than before. I share these not to complain, but to see if you have your own list, or best case, can solve some of these!
1) Live Broadcasts - As a sports fan, I love the increased content the streaming world provides, but the inherent delay of events being shown not quite real time and reduced uptime % continues to be a minor irritant compared to the over-the-air or cable reliability and signal.
2) Automotive Self-Maintenance - I am not a do-it-yourselfer on car service, but the latest cars basically take away the option of doing your own work with normal tools and skills. My brother still does everything he can himself, and I'd hire it out anyway, but it would be nice to have an option to use sweat rather than money to service your car/truck. EVs are certainly not going to make this easier in the future.
3) Phone Call Quality - Yes, we gained huge amounts of flexibility by moving to mobile, and yes, VOIP is a lot cheaper than landlines, but the actual quality of the typical call is much worse than it was 30 years ago. Between lost signal, interference, poor sound quality, and full duplexing challenges (two people can't as easily talk at the same time on a speakerphone or a zoom call), the actual conversation itself is more difficult than it once was.
4) Appliance Quality - Despite the addition (or maybe because of it?) of a lot of extra cool features, why do our refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers, and other home appliances break down more often, and fail more frequently? This is despite an almost 30% cumulative inflation in prices over the past 4 years.
I know you all have your own issues to add. If anyone has solutions, let us know, and we'll consider investing in you!
1) Live Broadcasts - As a sports fan, I love the increased content the streaming world provides, but the inherent delay of events being shown not quite real time and reduced uptime % continues to be a minor irritant compared to the over-the-air or cable reliability and signal.
2) Automotive Self-Maintenance - I am not a do-it-yourselfer on car service, but the latest cars basically take away the option of doing your own work with normal tools and skills. My brother still does everything he can himself, and I'd hire it out anyway, but it would be nice to have an option to use sweat rather than money to service your car/truck. EVs are certainly not going to make this easier in the future.
3) Phone Call Quality - Yes, we gained huge amounts of flexibility by moving to mobile, and yes, VOIP is a lot cheaper than landlines, but the actual quality of the typical call is much worse than it was 30 years ago. Between lost signal, interference, poor sound quality, and full duplexing challenges (two people can't as easily talk at the same time on a speakerphone or a zoom call), the actual conversation itself is more difficult than it once was.
4) Appliance Quality - Despite the addition (or maybe because of it?) of a lot of extra cool features, why do our refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers, and other home appliances break down more often, and fail more frequently? This is despite an almost 30% cumulative inflation in prices over the past 4 years.
I know you all have your own issues to add. If anyone has solutions, let us know, and we'll consider investing in you!
