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Yeah, I’m always skeptical of “it was better in the old days” type arguments (even though I recognize the aesthetic appeal of analog).

People make similar claims about cars, but old cars broke down all the time and new ones are basically appliances that “just work” without the driver needing to know anything. Similar for computers to smart phones (though obviously both digital in that transition)

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It wasn’t the old days. At the time the book was written and at the time I took the class mechanical timers in dryers were ubiquitous. Digital was new, expensive, and didn’t offer any advantages for that application.

Eventually digital became cheap, and enabled new features like dryers that had various sensors that could be used to optimize drying, but that was several years down the road.

Back in the "good old days", a car was ready for the junk heap after 50k miles. These days, that's barely broken-in. "But you could fix it yourself!" Who cares when the thing has such a short lifespan? It's really strange hearing people pining for the days of shitty old cars that you needed to constantly adjust the carb, set the points, etc. Insane.

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