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Automatic (mechanical) wristwatches.
I love the idea of a truly symbiotic relationship between a thoughtfully and carefully designed mechanism and a human. I walk around and live my life, and by doing so, I give it the kinetic energy it needs to keep its mainspring wound, and in return it tells me what time it is. Always. Without fail. I just have to tweak the time if it starts to get too far off, but that’s barely even an imposition. After a good long while, it’s prudent to have them serviced, but if you’re not observing any problems, it’s generally perfectly fine, and will keep ticking along as long as you wear it regularly.
Similarly, I have a cuckoo clock. I could watch the internal mechanism for hours.
also, knowing you are listening to the same exact tick tock that has been heard for centuries
I had a cheap automatic in college, sadly lost it in a move.
But I loved it so much, kept itself wound up without issue, and it was amazing to look at all the tiny parts that made it work.
There are some good enough automatics out now at very reasonable prices.
Of course there are also crazy expensive ones also, but they all do essentially the same thing - convert your movements into time measurements 😀
Using a brush to paint my house as opposed to an hvlp setup
Dice.
Consider the humble pillow.
Fun fact, some cultures don’t use pillows, and instead have carefully shaped head stands.
I am fully aware
I fear every person from any of those cultures. Those who sleep on hard surfaces are not to be trifled with, for they are stronger than all of us.
I’ve heard it’s actually more comfortable in really hot conditions. If its metal, the whole thing can be a cold spot I guess.
Anyway, I’d like to flex about all the rough sleeping I’ve done. It’s not usually braggable.
I went hi tek with pillows and got nice memory foam pillows. Changed our backs’ lives, never going back!
See memory foam is cool and all
But my point is that even the simplest pillow consisting of a linen sack with some animal nonsense inside it is still an exponential improvement over not that, or worse, those wooden head-supports that they still use in some eastern cultures.
Also: People use way too few pillows. I use five for the average night.
MULTIPILLOWGANG
right now there are eight on the bed, but two of them are those standing-up-sit-arms-pillows (I don’t know what they’re called) because my partner and I just got the VID.
we used two head pillows each before we got memory foam, now we just need one head pillow and a knees pillow each to be comfy!
Manual can openers are better than electric can openers
Especially the kind that uncrimps the can instead of cuts it.
Well, of course, the greatest human invention…
Toilet paper.
Bidet in their many forms are a clear upgrade. I would take a bucket of water & a place to wash my hands over TP.
Sure, but it’s difficult to use a bidet in the forest.
Do I look like the Pope? Can’t say I shit in the woods often…
I think you might look like the Pope. But there’s no real way for me to know. Just saying, there aren’t a lot of bidets in the US and toilet paper is definitely lower tech.
US has tipping, gerrymandering, male circumcision, & other weird tendencies. Washing your but with water is even older, maybe even ‘no tech’. Regardless, you owe yourself to install some option for yourself. 😀
Yeah, I like the idea, but don’t you still use toilet paper first? I thought this was used afterwards to make sure everything was clean.
Maps and compass. I like the reliability of finding my way no matter where I am. Plus it’s fun!
Especially the trick of using two landmarks to pinpoint my location on a map makes me feel like an old-fashioned navigator :)I love me an old map. Sadly I lost my Orienteering compass many moves ago
I’m a huge coffee drinker. Used to have a machine. It broke. Bend using an aeropress and French press for awhile and find that I really don’t miss the machine.
Same, I actually use a french press and then pour the coffee into the insulated carafe from my dead coffee machine to keep it hot until I finish it.
I bought a can opener years back that doesn’t cut the can, instead it separates the lid from the can with no sharp edges. It’s dumb but I love it.
Those are great, but somehow all the cans that i am buying now seem to come with their own “zip”. Haven’t used the opener in a good while.
Not dumb. Awesome.
Cars and trucks made before the 2010’s. Wanna fix a new model car? I don’t have the diagnostic setup so that’s a no for me. Oh, and new key fobs make me really mad.
2010s* …apostrophes are for possession & contractions
I like to get all up in my snuggie. Get a little weird.
INDOOR PLUMBING
I live in an apartment complex. The thought of having to share an outhouse (more than 1 if lucky) with hundreds of strangers TERRIFIES ME. And/or use chamberpots. FUCK NO
A BLESSED ETERNAL AFTERLIFE OF BLISS FOR ALL HUMANS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO INDOOR PLUMBING SCIENCE 😩
See, in the past we solved that by just not having cities the same way, and no buildings taller than maybe 6 floors. And the smallish cities there were were so disease ridden the population self-limited.
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Chopsticks
Do vinyl records count? I really like that they make beautiful noise from a simple electromechanical process.
There are some records which are “threaded” backwards, in that you start at the center and work out rather than start at the edge and work in. This is not standard, automatic turntables might not be able to handle this, but the reason they do this is because of the effect above. You can get greater dynamic range near the outside of the disc, and you probably want greater dynamic range near the end of the recording as the music reaches a climax. Consider Ravel’s Bolero, which is one long crescendo.
