Reply to: Materialism

[doodab]

I've shifted 12 linear feet of books now. I'm on a purging mission. Going to go through my old VMs next....

[lilelvis2000]

Complaining kids can't use old toys because they only play with technology is a little short-sighted. They may not be great with old toys but they do have incredible IT skills, learned at a level that technology is intuitive to them.

The stuff you play with is the stuff you'll know about. Horses for courses.

That Nephew stated to me the day that he is an IT expert and apparently his school allows him to use Window Repair when one of the computers goes wrong. Frigg. I don't know how to do that!
Though last time he used the Digital camera he ****ed it all up!

[d000hg]

Complaining kids can't use old toys because they only play with technology is a little short-sighted. They may not be great with old toys but they do have incredible IT skills, learned at a level that technology is intuitive to them.

The stuff you play with is the stuff you'll know about. Horses for courses.

[greenlake]

My nephew just does not play out. When he comes over his first words are "can I play on the laptop". I push him out and within 10 minutes he is back and asks the same questions again. I then give him a pen and paper and tell him to doodle or play with the toy cars. He'll do that for about 5 minutes and then comes back with the "I'm bored" line.

I'm not sure if its just the new modern kids or what. I've taken then tablet, Wii and laptop off the kid for two months to see how he copes.

Infants 'unable to use toy building blocks' due to iPad addiction - Telegraph

[xoggoth]

Hmmm. There was a film about the very real problems of children addicted to technology and consequences for their physical and mental health on at my local film club but It looked so dull I didn't go. Missed chance to pontificate, how annoying!

[lilelvis2000]

Well i've just decluttered about a hundred books in the direction of the charity shop. I need to be ruthless about favourite authors as well, if i cull those thats probably another 60 down. Way too many maths books as well, they aren't all good, time i went through those. And computer books. Do I really need a book on lex and yacc, even if it's a good one? Haven't written a dsl in C for years...

I remember the day my family rang me to tell me they had dumped all my BYTE magazines in the recycle bin. Arrrgh.

[lilelvis2000]

Yeah, and youtube, a million different kinds of lego and god knows what. And yet they will still sit there and say "I'm bored" if you won't let them sit in front of the TV for yet another hour.

My nephew just does not play out. When he comes over his first words are "can I play on the laptop". I push him out and within 10 minutes he is back and asks the same questions again. I then give him a pen and paper and tell him to doodle or play with the toy cars. He'll do that for about 5 minutes and then comes back with the "I'm bored" line.

I'm not sure if its just the new modern kids or what. I've taken then tablet, Wii and laptop off the kid for two months to see how he copes.

[mudskipper]

Well i've just decluttered about a hundred books in the direction of the charity shop. I need to be ruthless about favourite authors as well, if i cull those thats probably another 60 down. Way too many maths books as well, they aren't all good, time i went through those. And computer books. Do I really need a book on lex and yacc, even if it's a good one? Haven't written a dsl in C for years...

Guinness book of records 1989 any good?

What about several volumes of the Guinness book of hit singles?

[doodab]

Well i've just decluttered about a hundred books in the direction of the charity shop. I need to be ruthless about favourite authors as well, if i cull those thats probably another 60 down. Way too many maths books as well, they aren't all good, time i went through those. And computer books. Do I really need a book on lex and yacc, even if it's a good one? Haven't written a dsl in C for years...

[vetran]

If it they are that much of a curse, send them to me!

if only Walter had something of value, he is being evicted from his council bedsit.

[MyUserName]

There's not much one needs, once a good paid-for home has been achieved.
I like cheap but fun cars - other than that my biggest expenses are books.
I'm lucky that the missus is also very unmaterialistic like me.,
And now that the sprog has grown a bit - we will resume travelling a lot.
Life is about ideas and experiences, not things.
Given my background, I know many very rich people, but beyond a certain point, money and things become superfluous and can be a real curse.
An elegant sufficiency is the goal.

If it they are that much of a curse, send them to me!

[doodab]

Life is about ideas and experiences, not things.

Indeed. I'm not really craving things in themselves, I don't actually want a new computer for example (in fact I have a few I'm trying to get rid of), but I want to build a really powerful new computer for the sake and enjoyment of building one. If I had the budget I'd like to build a proper clustered supercomputer with 8 or so compute nodes just for the sake of doing it.

The music thing is a bit odd. I'm not that interested in making music per se, but I like tinkering with all the gadgets and building something complex that works.

I think part of the problem is that this tendency to acquire things because I want to play with them or know how they work has gotten out of hand and I have too much clutter. Even after my recent eBay exploits I still have way too much stuff and it's actually burdensome.

I have spent quite a lot of time writing up physics notes in Mathematica lately. Still struggling with getting some of the notation just how I want though. That has been quite satisfying.

[Gibbon]

There's not much one needs, once a good paid-for home has been achieved.
I like cheap but fun cars - other than that my biggest expenses are books.
I'm lucky that the missus is also very unmaterialistic like me.,
And now that the sprog has grown a bit - we will resume travelling a lot.
Life is about ideas and experiences, not things.
Given my background, I know many very rich people, but beyond a certain point, money and things become superfluous and can be a real curse.
An elegant sufficiency is the goal.

Agreed. Also having a curious interested mind, it keeps the boredom away which leads to craving other things for stimulus.

Just spent two days grappling with Plato's Myth of Er for an OU assignment, feck my head hurts but it's very satisfying when things click. That there is Logos in Mythos is not as contradictory as it seems!

[Ticktock]

My wife got some Amazon vouchers for her birthday from family members, as she hadn't been able to think of anything she really wanted, but reads a lot of kindle books.
She got so many she decided to splash out with them (and twice as much in cash) on a new hoover. She's very excited by it, so hopefully the house will be cleaner now. To be fair the old hoover was wearing out, overheating so often it took hours to do the house, but it's still an odd choice to buy yourself for your birthday.

I feel very lucky now to be in a position where neither my wife nor I can think of anything to ask for when it comes to birthdays / Christmas. I don't really do frivolous spending. If I need something I'll buy it, and depending on what it is I'll pay as little as I can (e.g. clothing), or pay a bit more to get something that is decent and / or will last a bit longer, and I'm able now to buy those things when I need to, rather than having to wait and ask for them for my birthday / Christmas.

[sasguru]

There's not much one needs, once a good paid-for home has been achieved.
I like cheap but fun cars - other than that my biggest expenses are books.
I'm lucky that the missus is also very unmaterialistic like me.,
And now that the sprog has grown a bit - we will resume travelling a lot.
Life is about ideas and experiences, not things.
Given my background, I know many very rich people, but beyond a certain point, money and things become superfluous and can be a real curse.
An elegant sufficiency is the goal.