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Knowing things exist and not having them and them not existing in the first place are two very different things.



Exactly, failing to keep up with the Jones has real impact on happiness. Absolute vs relative prosperity is like buying a top of the line new computer in 1995 or a used computer today built in 2010 that is vastly more powerful yet can’t run a lot of current software well.

One issue is we are constantly bombarded with things we don’t have. Basic cable has far more channels than existed in 1960 but the menu constantly shows every channel you don’t have while making menus harder to use.


Exactly, failing to keep up with the Jones has real impact on happiness. Absolute vs relative prosperity is like buying a to of the line new computer in 1995 or a used computer today built in 2010 that is vastly more powerful yet can’t run a lot of current software well.

A computer you bought in 2010 would be more than capable of running most modern non game software well.

https://www.computerhope.com/history/2010.htm

In fact, I was using a Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz Dell (circa 2009) running Windows 10 as my Plex Server until last week. It was only slow when trying to do something interactively while Plex was transcoding. It also ran PlexConnect to serve a Plex client to my 3rd gen AppleTV.

The 1st gen iPad was also released that year. I still have one (not my main iPad). I reset it last year. It can still be used for most of the streaming services - Netflix, Hulu, etc.


Bingo. I have a 2009 Thinkpad that's still kicking; both it refurb'd. Does everything just fine for day-to-day purposes, and runs Alpha Centauri in WINE/DosBox like a boss.

For a couple years it was a dedicated seedbox. It's mostly by BTC-trade-only box these days, but if my desktop died I could re-image it and use it for 95% of my life without issue.


I am mostly talking about games. Still, a good PC from 2010 holds up well, but low end PC’s from 2010 could have as little as 2GB of RAM which would have issues with a modern OS and a wide range of applications. Other issues where anemic SSD storage space, a HDD from 2010 holds up ok, but SSD’s tended to just barely work.


It's like the difference between prosperity and happiness.


It's also like the difference between poverty and ignorance.




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