Yeah, I can't shake the feeling that while AI is exciting and can unlock new solutions to problems, too many uses of it will actually make our lives worse. The best uses of the technology seem to be when it enables coming at something from a whole new direction, not the cases where it is just directly replacing something we were doing before.

AI is just the "logical" end of the enshitification of everyday (digital) life that is well under way.

Especially career / professional.

I've been wanting a device that would notify me when it detects that I am getting emotional. Particularly if my heart starts pounding and my voice is raised. I was hopeful that Amazon's Halo would be that device, but it's voice analysis was not always on and you had to go look at it after the fact.

You come with self-awareness built in. Costs nothing

I also come with biceps, but the pull ups come from practice.

I always like Adam Taylor's write-ups.

I don't have any silver bullets and often find myself in a similar circumstance as you. Here is what I can suggest as possible courses of action. First, have you considered seeing a counselor? YMMV, but if you find the right one they may help you work through the not so obvious sources of that "what's the point" feeling. Second, read as much as you can on the subjects of motivation, burn out and happiness. I'm currently reading "Smarter, Faster, Better" by Charles Duhigg and there is interesting stuff in there about how lack of choice can lead to lack of motivation. This is just one example of a deep subject however which is why I suggest reading a lot and see what you identify with. Personally, I'm also a big fan of "The Happiness Trap" by Russ Harris. Good Luck.

“Lack of choice can lead to lack of motivation” does make sense, to me, I think.

I will look into the suggested reading. Thank you.

Couldn't the opposite also be true though? Not having a product that is heavily integrated into the U.S. supply chain means the U.S. may not come to your aid when your neighbor invades.

This is very true! Which is why this is a fine balancing act on Taiwan, and not the simplistic 'hurr durr US interests can't allow that'. They need to carefully weight their options, and decide what is best for their nation under the circumstances.

The US absolutely would be very carefully considering options.

Their primary preference would be for no conflict, so they put up a front of bravado to discourage any aggression. He question does remain, if they'd actually respond to such an invasion.

Came here to say the same thing. Having my old laptop board be a NUC for another screen somewhere seems like a good idea.

Already preordered the 13" AMD board knowing that my old mainboard is going straight into my arcade cabinet as soon as it's out of the laptop.

Did you DIY that arcade cabinet? If so, know of any good guides / did you use one when building it?

Didn't use a guide, it's a bog-standard Arcade1Up conversion. A couple years ago I looked up a display driver board providing an HDMI input to the stock display and bought a $50 Amazon-sourced EG STARTS-brand cheapo kit of sticks and buttons with USB encoders. They were drop-in replacements for the stock deck's buttons and sticks. The emulator driver right now is just a 6th-gen i5 HP EliteDesk Mini fleet-salvaged workstation booting into RetroArch.

These days you can go even easier with fully installed plug-and-play Arcade1Up control panel replacements that are literally drop-in - MDF, sticks, buttons, encoders, and audio/display driver card are all built in. You just pull the stock control deck out, drop the $150 Intec deck in, and connect whatever PC/console/FPGA into the video in and USB controller outputs that it provides. You can build a cab around one out of plywood or just grab a random Arcade1Up on sale somewhere.

Oh cool, thanks for the info!

Not just charming, but also makes me feel like they value my money and want to make sure it goes toward the mission. It's easy to say "hire a production company", but personally, I can put up with a clunky PR event if they use the savings to keep pushing the mission forward.

"And if eink weather displays in the bathroom are unappealing to you, I just don’t understand what you’re doing here."

This made my morning.

Detasseling corn.

I wouldn't say I have "stopped", but my productivity has improved greatly after I went through this course: https://www.drdavidmaloney.com/procrastination-course-101 Procrastination is a psychology issue and some of the things that cause it are counter intuitive. This course gave me a toolbox to both recognize and deal with the different causes.