Lee Peterson writing I miss the time when technology was fun:

I really miss the days when I enjoyed catching up with the technology news. When we got excited for leaks of new hardware or the hundreds of apps pouring onto the store in the early days of the App Store. Nowadays I see posts about one of the many narcissists running things, AI and bit coin – it’s become a very negative space (for me).

My Comfort Zone co-host Chris brings this up sometimes as well, and I get it. Tech isn't some up-and-comer now, it's the most important and impactful market in the world today, so the nature of things have changed.

That said, and I know this won't resonate with everyone, but LLMs are the most exciting, innovative, and yes, fun thing I've experienced in tech since maybe the original iPhone. I think the stuff I'm able to accomplish with LLMs in my workflow is amazing, and it's enabled me to do new sorts of tasks I had never even considered before.

And in terms of missing the days of tons of new apps on the App Store, I have been getting a similar rush from web apps in recent years. I love Puzzmo for daily games, Spline for 3D modeling, Notion Mail is a strong new email app entrant, Lottielab is a great animation app, and Linear is a great project management tool, to name a few. This is not to mention native apps like MacWhisper, Aqua Voice, Claude, Ivory, Supercharge, Ghostty, Screen Studio, Zen, and other newer apps that are on my devices and I enjoy very much. For my part, I've tried to contribute as well with Quick Reviews and Best-o-Masto on iOS and Quick Stuff on the web.

I'm certainly not saying anyone is wrong to "miss when tech was fun", obviously someone could look at my last paragraph and find nothing of interest to them. What I'm constantly on the lookout for as I get older is how often I look back blissfully at "the good old days". Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and it has a tendency to sand away the rough spots. Was 2008-2010 the golden age of app development, or was it just my golden age since I was in my early 20s? Just like how all the music that came out then happened to be a golden age in my eyes as well (which it was, I won't hear any arguments against it 😛).