Hacker News Reader

Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

It shouldn't be, but it is.

The very act, the very ritual of starting a record playing changes the experience, even if everything else is exactly the same. You don't interact with music the same way.

View on HN

Smoking a cigarette/cigar/pipe vs. slapping on a nicotine patch.

People enjoy smoking because of many other elements besides the nicotine fix.

With records versus streaming it’s interesting because the experience during the “main event” is nearly identical. Certainly closer than a book versus an e-reader or a cigar versus nicotine. It’s the entry and exit that’s different.

The auditory input is the same…pretty much. Most other aspects of the experience are different.

The fact it's a record and you can't pause/rewind keeps you less distracted. It really is a different experience even if you "simulated it" and had the machine play the right digital file once you loaded a particular record.

It also completely gets rid of skips and shuffle-play. And a song can't "grow on you" if you always skip it.

There is literally nothing stopping you from pausing/rewinding/fast fowarding/shuffling a record.

You have to get up and move the stylus; I’ve never seen a record player that could shuffle on its own.

Especially a pipe...scraping out the bowl, cleaning the pipe's stem with a pipe cleaner, tamping in the new tobacco.

Some small rituals can be calming and centering.

Similarly manual shaving vs electric.

Also see making coffee versus Nespresso.

Although I like to tell myself that the old fashioned way is objectively better with coffee.

Great example - my Moccamaster since I bought it few months ago is used ten times more than capsule machine that stands next to it. And I'm not sure if the coffe is really better - but it does not matter because the morning ritual makes the experience so much better, that I cannot imagine going back to capsules.

Coffee capsules' business model relies on convenience to create unnecessary waste. Capsules of coffee taste worse and provide no improvement whatsoever. Why do this? Marketing creates a fake need, even though better solutions to brew coffee already exist. It's all about marketing convenience without innovation. You pay a higher tax for unnecessary capsule packaging, additional pollution, and waste.

Yes! I make pour over coffee almost every morning. It's a ritual where I take a few minutes of quiet and plan my day.

I don’t think that’s a great example - with good beans and a good grinder and machine, you should be able to do miles better than Nespresso. Even the larger pod systems have quite a small quantity of grounds so tend towards over-extraction for a decent sized shot.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com