Metallica

2 comments on Hacker News

1. Neutralarcturus17Jun 26, 2021

   * Reading

   * More and better work (I work for myself, so this is actually great)

   * Movies (I don't consider these to be part of the bottomless well. I would very rarely watch more than one in one sitting).

   * Actively listening to music and singing (used to sing in a metal band, if I'm bored, instead of going on Youtube, I'll just growl Metallica or Megadeth around the house like back in the day)

   * Hanging out with friends

   I've done significantly more of all of the above since I quit.

   I'm also feeling more creative and entrepreneurial thanks to the feeling of mastery over my time, and the frequent boredom that comes with not having a quick digital fix that ends up turning into hours of infinite scrolling.

   My biggest drains were Youtube, Reddit, and news media. I've easily reclaimed anywhere between 10-15h just from quitting those.

2. NeutralTamDenholmJan 18, 2012

   I used to be this guy, i would pirate software, music, tv shows, films, games etc. I did it mainly because it was easy. Innovation has changed my ways, not completely, but mostly.

   I no longer pirate music, ive paid for spotify for over 2 years now, i get music wherever i want on any device and its great, i wish they had metallica and acdc but theres youtube for that.

   I no longer pirate software, linux got good at "just working" and i've been using ubuntu for years now. I use google docs and other SaaS apps and pay for really good apps like dropbox.

   I no longer pirate games, mainly because i'm not much of a gamer, but i have paid for some indie games like SPAZ, Minecraft, QUBE, Darwinia etc because they're indie and the money goes to the developer and the price point is much more reasonable than the big games that come with heavily restrictive DRM.

   I still download TV Shows, but not as much as i used to because of BBC iPlayer and similar initiatives, its mainly American TV i download, i've actually no idea if this is illegal or not, considering most of the shows are put on the american networks websites for streaming too.

   For films there are LoveFilm, Netflix (now in the UK), iPlayer does some films now as does youtube, but i still think films are the category that is lacking the most, but also a really tough nut to crack, but hell, if it can be done with music, it can be done with films.

   So, in my opinion, innovation and me feeling good about giving money to actual people rather than conglomerates is what has stopped me from pirating as much as i used to and thats the key.