The more you can make automatic the basic stuff, the more you could focus on controlling or creating the important stuff.

An interesting idea from Elon Musk: striving to get rid of all stalks in cars. For example, getting rid of the turn signal stalk, the manual transmission or automatic transmission shifting stalk and striving to make the driving experience as unified as possible.

While I’ve always been a fan of manual transmissions, honestly at this point it seems that manual transmissions are more because of nostalgia in the past, rather than any real pragmatic benefit.

Another thing, the nostalgia for rangefinder cameras and manual cameras. Perhaps auto focus and automatic exposure like program mode is superior. Also the nostalgia for film cameras. At this point, digital cameras are superior. Just how electric cars are superior than gasoline cars.

Why nostalgia is inimical to life and growth

When I think about the new Diablo 2 resurrected, I think ultimately it is a bad thing. All of the focus that could’ve went into Diablo IV got subverted into Diablo 2, because they knew that it was a sure money grab.

Why so much nostalgia for the past?

Upon thinking about this for a long time, this is my conclusion: nostalgia feelings of the past is ultimately a form of degeneracy. Why? Because when we romanticize about the past, we strive for a world which was simpler, more predictable, and hindsight is always 2020. Perhaps a preference for nostalgia is a fear of the future.

People always look into the past with rose colored glasses, but how come no one ever thinks that the past was inferior?

Petty feelings of superiority

Why do photographers glorify using fully manual mode than automatic or program mode? Because it is a petty form of superiority. That is, the expert who is disenchanted will make newbies feel inferior, because newbies do not know how to shoot photos fully manual.

Why this passion for film photography? I think it is more of a form of desire to differentiate yourself from other photographers. Rather than the aesthetics.

Is the cult of the future better than the cult of the past?

Perhaps. At least when you think about the future, it is based on notions of evolution, increasing life, and expansion.

Retrospective design is bad design?

When Marcello Gandini first designed original Lamborghini Countach, it was a clean break from the past. But when we look at the new updated Lamborghini Countach, it is a slavish imitation of the past, rather than following in the same footsteps of creating something radically different. And this is a problem, Lamborghini only made the new Countach for a quick money grab. They wanted to play off the nostalgia that a lot of these rich people had when they were kids.