3w ago

Buying happiness

Original post: hachyderm.io (Mastodon)

47 comments

Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a mercenary army and topple governments.
- I thought you said it couldn't buy happiness?
  
  heavy is the purse that bears this kind of coin

I work at a bakery, which means that I can give people free food when we have extras or when something gets a little banged up.
Money may not be able to buy happiness, but godDAMN is surprising people with free food one of the best feelings in the world.
- giving folks delivering stuff cookies is a similar joy

Excess money cannot buy happiness. Up until the point of excess, money certainly buys happiness and comfort.
- This negativity is bumming me out. Lemme throw money at you until you stop.
  
  Me too! I am such a negative person! Where's my money?

^Wired article
- Thanks. I was imagining something that was in a hat form.

Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy things. Things can fill the aching void in your spirit, and that is like happiness.

My wife bought one of these a few weeks ago, and yeah, she's pretty psyched about being bundled up in a blanket and still able to use her e-reader.
- My Steam Deck was literally so I can game while being 10 feet away from my computer!
  I can game while under a blanket too. It makes me really happy.

I need dis
Also:

Truly an aspirational life.

My wife has one of these. I'll round the corner to find her curled up in a big mound of blankets with our cat and dog, face illuminated by the e-reader floating in front of her face.

Someone tell this person about audio books! She'll be ecstatic!
(This was said in jest; I neither believe they give the same experience, nor prefer them)
- I had a audio book where the as author was reading it. And they SUCKED at reading. Just incredibly distracting ways they say specific words. How they end sentences with "uh" and "um".
  It was one of the few times I got a physical book over the audio version.
  
  At the dubbing studio I work at, we sometimes record audiobooks. Usually, it is done by professional voice actors, but occasionally, we have an influencer that wants to record it themselves.
  We just sigh, and work 3 times as long for a result 10 times as bad. They do pay, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Money does not bring happyness, however it enables you to buy things that allow you to experience moments of increased happyness.

I never got the point of eReaders tbh. I mean sure, they look exactly like paper n stuff, but what's wrong with ur phone?
I read on my phone with a black background and white-gray text. It's really comfortable, and I don't need to buy and charge extra devices. Really curious to know why you guys don't do something like this.
- I never got the point of eReaders tbh. I mean sure, they look exactly like paper n stuff, but what's wrong with ur phone?
  Because they look like paper... They don't hurt your eyes because you're not staring at a light the whole time. They're not backlit at all.
  
  A lot of them are, but you can turn it off when there's enough ambient light.
  
  I have an OLED screen though. It gets really really dim, plus the black background is as dark as it can get. But again, I guess it's that additional luxury.
  E readers are definitely not worse than my phone. They most definitely are better (even if the difference isn't that significant). Therefore, if money was not a concern, I would get one too ig!
- E-ink is just genuinely incredible. As you said it looks like paper which is nice, including needing an external light to be read at all lol. Feels easier on the eyes than a phone.
  They use no power at all except during page turns, so battery life lasts for like a month.
  Screen is much larger than a phone and the device is also a lighter weight. I find it more comfortable to read for longer sessions.
  Overall they’re just nice. That being said mine was a gift, I’m not sure if I would get another one tbh. I usually just read physical books still lol
- I grew up reading paper books and I don't like how narrow my phone is, or how reading for 8+ hours at a time drains the battery so much so quickly unless I attach a tether to it to charge while I read (I don't like the sensory feeling of that phone charger dragging over my body as I shift in bed). Phones also provide too many "quick gratification" distractions like apps and social media. Also, as I get older, I have to increase text size because my eyes already sucked before aging got to them, then they got worse, and large text on a tiny phone screen is ridiculous.
  eReaders have better battery life and a bigger screen and are easier to read in full sun without glare washing it out.
- Phones increase eye strain. Books don't. Books, though, suck at changing the text written on their pages, so an ereader is the best of both worlds.
  If you don't feel the eye strain/don't read for too long at a time, then a phone is generally better, yeah. But it's a nicer experience to use an e-reader, in my opinion.
- Technology Connections did a really good video a few years ago explaining how e-readers and eInk works and what draws people to them. It's really informative, goes over a bit of the tech history of it, roughly how it works, and whether it may or may not work for you.
  https://youtu.be/dhRgw0HfrYU
  
  Removing tracker: https://youtu.be/dhRgw0HfrYU
  Love Technology Connections!
- I mean, if it works for, you, no need to consider an eBook reader. But my eyes get fatigued really quickly if I'm reading on a normal screen, but the eBook reader screens are effectively fatique free.
  
  They also don't use much energy. You can do a lot of reading on one charge.
- Battery on my e-reader lasts months, no distractions/alerts, it's a bigger screen so I can use a increased size font without destroying the layout, I can load a few GB on there without taking space from apps on my phone, and more comfortable to hold for long periods especially if I've been on the phone often that day already. Phone is a pixel 5, e-reader is a Kindle 6.8", and I have a cheap old 10" tablet for reading comics and scientific papers, but I haven't been using that as much for comics since Amazon killed comixology.
- You've gotten a few replies from people who are talking about e-ink, which I can't comment on without having used an e-reader, but I nearly universally prefer to read things on a screen bigger than a phone. I guess it'll depend a bit on your phone's screen size (mine is on the small side for recent phone generations), but it always feels like the screen is closer to my face than I want, the font is too small to be comfortable, and/or I can't fit enough on the screen. Plus the aspect ratio of modern phones is very tall, meaning each line of text is pretty short which is kind of annoying for long-form content like books. If you have a big 6.5" screen that's similar to a small e-reader's screen size anyway then I guess it might not be as much of an issue though!
  
  Yeah, I get the short lines issue. It's especially a problem for me for books with figures in them (like textbooks). Too much of scrolling necessary there.
  For normal mostly text based stuff, it's alright for me. But again, I do have a large-ish phone. So ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
- I'm light sensitive and suffer from migraines. The eye strain and fatigue from back-lit screens is real for me. E-ink is so much easier for me to read.
  
  Ah, so u have an LCD screen? Have u tried OLED screens? There's no backlight.
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