"We live in an amazing world and it's wasted on the crappiest generation..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkusicUL2s&feature=player_embedded#at=91

by jamesbressi • 16 years ago

268 95 16 years ago

jamesbressi3• 16 years ago

[Louis C.K. on Conan] Some of the best and truest words about technology, its convenience and just how much more miserable (or unappreciative) we are.

I'm sure most of you have seen this, but it is worth repeating and watching. Love it.

Nuggets: - Rotary Phones (and hating people with 0's in their number) - Life before common credit-card use - Cell phones and impatience - In-flight wifi - Air travel - and funny in-betweens

steveplace• 16 years ago

The fact that you did a tl;dr summary helps to reinforce his point.

hyperbovine• 16 years ago

What was there to read? I skipped it because I'm trying to avoid YouTube.

itg• 16 years ago

Oh look, another typical aging misanthrope complaining about whatever generation is after him. Improvements in tech has made life easier but that doesn't necessarily mean the world is AMAZING, especially for a lot of young people in this economy.

zeeone• 16 years ago

I think he's making a good point. You can't deny that the technological advances in the last 15 years were bigger than than in the last 200. He's just saying that all of that is easily taken for granted.

Psyonic• 16 years ago

The routine is funny. That said, without constant effort to appreciate it, everything is easily taken for granted. Give Cinderella a year or two after she married the prince, and she's probably a stuck up bitch who yells at the maid.

othello• 16 years ago

I beg to differ. You could argue that the advances in technology since 1995 (while substantial, notably in IT) do not compare with the breakthroughs accomplished since 1810.

Although we do enjoy faster and more mobile access to internet and computing in general, most of the advances over the past 15 years are incremental improvements over technologies that already existed back then.

What breakthroughs comparable to the advent of e.g. the train, the plane or antibiotics occured over the last 15 years?

culled• 16 years ago

I'm not quite sure if you're saying that technology has been progressing at a faster rate in the past 15 years than it has in the previous 200 (which I'd agree with) or that we've had greater progress in the past 15 years than we did in the previous 200 combined (which is absurd).

jacquesm3• 16 years ago

> You can't deny that the technological advances in the last 15 years were bigger than than in the last 200.

I can and it's nonsense.

Nuclear power? The Electrical Grid? The Industrial revolution? The transportation revolution? Mass airtravel? Genetics? Electronics?

Versus what ? The internet? Cell phones? Sure it's great but it definitely isn't bigger by any yardstick than what preceded it, in fact plenty of those previous inventions were pre-requisites for those to be possible in the first place.

I'd bet you could live just fine in the world of 15 years ago, but I'd challenge you to live in the one from 200 years ago.

alanthonyc• 16 years ago

He was joking. He was making people lsugh. There was no other guy on the plane complaining about the internet going down, it was him.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1885790,00.html

portman• 16 years ago

Thank you for this link. I had never seen it. This is an amazing quote that I wish he had said on Conan:

If you had a jetpack, you'd be like, "I have the shitiest jetpack. I can't believe I got this jetpack. Who's your service provider? Did they make the new one? Hate this thing, it sucks." Then we'd all sit there and talk about that.

goatforce5• 16 years ago

From the article:

It's funny how many different ways you can react to that clip. I even read something by a marketing expert who said, "Louis CK is on to something. We have to figure out how we can to get consumers to really appreciate our product; there's no brand value anymore." Does that surprise you? That even the marketing industry's like: "Yes!"

Life imitates Bill Hicks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

(edited to fix formatting)

joshklein• 16 years ago

You do know this is a comedy routine right?

Alex39172• 16 years ago

It's actually an interview. And he's acting as a humorist, not a comedian. So I think the criticism is somewhat valid.

_delirium4• 16 years ago

It's got a nice meta-joke in it too. He's adopting the persona of the back-in-my-day nostalgist, to argue that in the past, things were better because people appreciated how much worse things were in the past.

pavs2• 16 years ago

I think you misunderstood, or it was poorly phrased. But I think the point he was trying to make is that, not that everything in the world is amazing, but rather we live in a time where we (generally speaking) take everything for granted and don't take the time (at least occasionally) to appreciate things for what they are.

I think the keyword here is "appreciation". We snap too quickly if things doesn't always work as they were intended to. Neil deGrasse Tyson made an interesting point about how people would have reacted to iphone if you showed it to them 10 years ago[1]. Yet we bitch and moan about flash and multi-task and copy&paste on iPhone (albeit, some are very legitimate criticism to some extend).

[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xag3oOzvU68#t=2m18s

jasonlotito2• 16 years ago

Except, appreciate doesn't provide progression. All that progression that we are supposed to appreciate isn't built on appreciation.

200 years ago, crossing the entire country was a bigger undertaking then it was 50 years ago, and 50 years ago it was a bigger undertaking then it is now. If 50 years ago, people merely appreciated, progress wouldn't have happened. Rather, people weren't happy it was fast enough.

As for why we bitch and moan? Because we care. It's not new, people have been complaining for ages. It's just with the internet, it's easier then ever to find people to bitch and moan with, or about, or to.

However, it was funny. =)

startuprules• 16 years ago

I assume he is talking about the baby boomer generation? He doesn't specify the age of the people he's complaining about in his stories.

jamesbressi3• 16 years ago

I don't think he was polarizing any particular generation, because every single generation is GUILTY of taking progress for granted.

Much like freedom, progress and technology is taken for granted until it is interrupted or impeded upon.

But I digress...

Alex39172• 16 years ago

Two more contrasting views on technological progress:

Brad Paisely - Welcome to the future: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Yg9wjctRw

Lindsay Mac - Rain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5KMmVLkzvw

roboneal• 16 years ago

His best analogy was people complaining that there flight from NYC to LA was "delayed an hour" and comparing it to the fact it often took years to cross the country ("people dieing and babies being born in the group you traveled with").

jamesbressi3• 16 years ago

I was hoping he was going to deliver an Oregon Trail, something like:

"New York to California in 5 hours?! That used to take 30 years, you die of dysentery, your oxen would get ill and you'd have to float your wagon across a river. Now, you watch a movie, take a dump and you're home."

dgordon• 16 years ago

Finally. An Oregon Trail reference that remembers that fording the river never, ever worked. Caulk the wagon and float was the way to go.

pw0ncakes3• 16 years ago

The awesomeness of air travel has faded into the background and now we see the shittiness of service, the high prices, and the cramped seats.

Airplanes are still amazing technology, but they're wrong for most of their uses. High-speed rail makes more sense for mid-distance travel. At 300 mph, I'd even consider using it for New York to California-- much prettier, and not dependent on a fuel that will be very expensive in 10-20 years.

jacquesm3• 16 years ago

There seems to be some movement on high speed rail in the states.

It's funny, it's the one country on the planet that would really benefit from doing it and yet they're really late to the party.

jzycrzy• 16 years ago

From a worst-case-scenario perspective rail is great. Imagine: When all that expensive fuel goes away (bc of war, resource depletion, etc) and all we're left with is crappy old coal. If we have rail all over the country, we will still be able to plop some coal steam engine choo-choos on that rail and send food/water into major city centers so people don't starve.

tfh• 16 years ago

"how quickly the world owes him something that didn't exist ten seconds ago"

99% of the internet users today :)

frou_dh• 16 years ago

that HE didn't know existed ten seconds ago

Get it right because it emphasises the entitlement douchiness :-)

esornoso• 16 years ago

You're sitting on a chair in the sky.

presidentender• 16 years ago

THE CHAIR IS NOW DIAMONDS.

oconnore• 16 years ago

When your Superbowl ad turns into an instant meme, surely you have achieved sainthood in the marketing community.

sofal• 16 years ago

For reference:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494066 42 comments

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1003875 2 comments

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495561 2 comments

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=474588 1 comment

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=918637 0 comments

caffeine• 16 years ago

Geez, I can't BELIEVE that my incredible world-wide communication network containing the knowledge of ALL humanity and powering the future .... has REDUNDANT content! It sucks!

pohl• 16 years ago

Don't know why you were downvoted. Your post is on message.

eogas• 16 years ago

My sarcasm detector is off the scale!!!

samd• 16 years ago

Yes, it is only this latest generation that takes things for granted.

I wonder if he wakes up every morning utterly flabbergasted that his home is comfortably warm, he has clean running water, and wild animals haven't tried to kill him in the night. Somehow I doubt it.

stcredzero7• 16 years ago

Spending a summer in Alaska can help give you an appreciation. I was there in 1992.

Me before Alaska: "I'll never be a sell out."

Me during Alaska: Covered in cold fish slime mixed with refrigerated seawater. Shivering my ass off shoveling crushed ice in the back of a refrigerated trailer. Sliding around on my belly in a tender boat hold with a gaff, wrangling 75 pound Halibut into a cargo net. Living in a tent on the beach, and going into town to make a phone call and pay $1.75 to take a shower. (Not an everyday occurrence!)

Me after Alaska: "A nice cozy job in an climate controlled office? Sounds nice!"

The guy who was my skipper for a very short time? He lived in the southwest near Dillingham and there were no roads near his house. He had no running water or electricity. To check his snail mail, he had to go down to the river, untie his boat and travel 2 miles downstream.

(Not sure, but I think there were basically no roads anywhere.)

yters3• 16 years ago

Yeah, no kidding. Grow up in a third world country. You'll realize what luxury you live in. Hungry? Drive down the street for delicious fastfood. Even the poorest among us have electricity, running water, tv, computer, internet, etc. Most I didn't have when growing up.

tvon• 16 years ago

Jesus people, it's a fucking joke, stop taking it so personally.

stcredzero7• 16 years ago

Belay that. Do take it personally, reflect on it, but then laugh anyways.

brianobush• 16 years ago

Thanks for reminding me about dialing zeros... Forgot that artifact of pulse dialing.

cma• 16 years ago

A different take:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJjUVIIYptE

kurtosis2• 16 years ago

This observation is pretty hilarious.

But surely the reason that technology progresses so fast is that there are always people complaining and striving to improve on these trivial inconveniences. I have no doubt that the motivation for the development of these technological wonders was due to some ungrateful jerk who insisted that the amazing could be even better.

stcredzero7• 16 years ago

I have no doubt that the motivation for the development of these technological wonders was due to some ungrateful jerk who insisted that the amazing could be even better.

Minus the fraction what was developed by those who thought, "Wouldn't it be marvelous if...?"

Also minus the fraction who thought, "I bet I could make tons of money by..."

Actually, I think we could to without the contribution from ungrateful jerks and be just fine!

kurtosis2• 16 years ago

fair enough, but in these cases we still get a second order benefit from ungrateful jerks. Let's complete the sentence "I bet I could make tons of money by X because people think Y sucks and would hand over cash to avoid X"

of course, hats off to those solving problems for thinking "wouldn't it be marvelous if..?" I hope they don't go out of business

akrito• 16 years ago

I'm fine with this being reposted every month or so. In fact, I wouldn't mind if it were pinned to the top of the page.

stcredzero7• 16 years ago

Your comment works both with a straight reading and as sarcasm. Both readings strike me as clever, though opposed.

mcantor• 16 years ago

This video gets reposted here about once every three to six months, and I upvote it every time. To be clear about how deeply I appreciate this video, I am a member of this "crappiest generation". I'm 24. Hi-speed cable and mobile phones became ubiquitous while I was growing up, and I know that I take my entire life brutally for granted. Anyone in my generation who watches this video and says, "What a jerk! I don't do that!" is either a filthy liar, or they weren't born into the predominantly white-upper-middle-class privileges that Louis C.K. is making fun of.

This usually is posted with the title, "Everything is amazing and no one is happy," which I think is far more poignant and fitting, because while my peers are largely guilty of the kind of "convenience entitlement complex" that Louis C.K. is talking about, it is hardly restricted to just us. The fact is, we do live in amazing world, where man can soar above the clouds while taking a dump, and satellites that cost scrillions of dollars to get into geosynchronous orbit are used to send naked pictures zipping across continents in the blink of an eye. I love this video so much, because if you listen with an open mind, it forces you to take a step back and look at what we're really missing.

_delirium4• 16 years ago

If everyone's unhappy about it, though, maybe the world isn't so amazing, subjectively speaking. That's the usual assumption in entrepreneurship, anyway: If you've produced a product you think everyone should love, and they don't love it, maybe something's wrong with the product, not the people.

yters3• 16 years ago

Plato said rich people couldn't be virtuous, probably for this reason.

dkarl• 16 years ago

While the style and content of complaining varies up and down the economic ladder, the proportion of people who whine incessantly about everyday inconveniences seems about the same.

erikpukinskis• 16 years ago

It makes sense to me. Happiness doesn't come from amazing "things". We can fly but we are coerced into constantly hating our bodies, poisoning ourselves, living in fear of things we don't understand, and viewing our neighbors as competitors.

Our technology is amazing, but our cultural practices have evolved to make us miserable. Almost every enduring widespread cultural practice in the U.S. evolved and thrived precisely because it fostered mass spending. The cultural practices that made us healthy and self sufficient have long since died out.

Darwin is dead, long live Darwin.

pw0ncakes3• 16 years ago

This is a general problem with infrastructure. Once something cool is built, it becomes an expectation. The same is true of the Internet.

Sethnektochy• 16 years ago

Every generation can say something to this measure about the one before it. If we were happy and content, we would have never made it this far. It is our unhappiness that serves as a driving force to make things even better. Depression and assholitry are not setbacks, they are the driving evolutionary force.

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

2010: Wow, in-flight wi-fi! It's even fast enough to use YouTube!

2012: Wow, this in-flight wi-fi is slow. I'm barely going to get all these files into PowerPoint in time for the presentation...

vdm• 16 years ago

2015: Ladies and Gentlemen, we can't contact ATC, could you please ease up on your torrents.

jrockway• 16 years ago

3015: Windmills do not work that way. Goodnight.

breakall• 16 years ago

What a great video. Louis CK is one of the funniest comedians out there.

scscsc• 16 years ago

Funny, I thought that the technologies he (clearly) enjoys (and appreciates) today were built by people who were thinking along the lines of: oh shit, it takes 30 years to walk to California, why couldn't we just fly there?

It's ok to appreciate things, but it's also ok to expect (and ask for) the best possible service instead of settling for less.

f33l• 16 years ago

I agree that we do live in an amazing age we live in, even though I wouldn't put too much emphasis on being able to fly (as this has been around for about 60 years now). I think technologically speaking, a major breakthrough was definitely the internet and mobile communication.

However, I would like to say something about the current generation. I believe the reason they are whiners is maybe because many youngsters in the west are facing the perspective of not being better off financially than the generation of their parents, putting lots of pressure upon them.

I think many people (at least here in Europe) are skeptical of technology because they perceive globalization, outsourcing, technological advancement and increasing competition as interlinked factors, which do not necessarily improve their quality of life, but rather present them with additional unknowns.

Again speaking for Europe, technology would be more widely accepted and hopefully appreciated, if there was a way to give the current generation more certainty that there will be enough water to flow all boats.

Tycho2• 16 years ago

The clip is comical in tone so the premises are inexact but it touches on something very important. As we watched the evening news the other day, my flatmate said 'what a terrible world we live in.' Since the news had just reported several abductions and murders, this may seem like a reasonable assertion. But my flatmate's problem is he never appreciates the good of modern society. He simply does not consider all the good things that happened today when he forms the equation. And this goes for a lot of people. All the benefits of technology, etc, are somehow not REAL benefits to us because some corporation is making profit, therefore everyone else must be sustaining some sort of net loss and there's no point feeling good about it.

I'm not suggesting everyone should be permanently ecstatic - everyone's happiness is at root based on achievement of goals they set (or don't set) for themselves, and will fluctuate accordingly, and normalize to the social context. But equally there is no reason to hold a constantly pessimistic and critical world-view.

vog2• 16 years ago

In Germany there is a saying:

Man erkennt Wohlstand nicht daran, dass die Leute weniger jammern, sondern daran, auf welchem Niveau sie jammern.

(You don't recognize wealth by less complaining people, but by the level on which they are complaining.)

Tycho2• 16 years ago

I like that. Here's one I just thought up:

Envy is not poverty.

Would you say that is analogous?

PhysicsAndYou• 16 years ago

There's something to be said about how fantastically developed the world is relative to even a decade ago let alone 100 years or more.

That said; progress isn't made by mass contentment. We must always do analysis on the margin. Even if what people complain about is trivial compared to how far we've come, we don't go further without these goals. Large or small.

hassenben• 16 years ago

It's very interesting to see how (almost) all these links have less than 15 points when it is the same content....

I guess there is nothing better than an attractive headline

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494066 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1003875 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495561 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=474588 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=918637

"We live in an amazing world and it's wasted on the crappiest generation..."

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