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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2320 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 13, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Would modal behavior start to change if the economics of renting were blatantly better than the economics of owning?

Yes, and it's not just the millionaires, but in e.g. the bay area the modal person does not own a house.

There's still other frictions in moving, e.g. losing all your friends, that will continue to discourage moving even for people without mortgages and even if those people rent their furniture.

Can you actually do the math to figure out whether it is preferable to trade-in and upgrade every two years... WITHOUT knowing how much the new models will cost two years out?

It's not much of a leap to assume that the new models will cost about as much as the current models. The base model iPhone has been $799 for a few years now. It doesn't really seem like this plan is worth it (and the math in the post you linked bears it out).

There's still other frictions in moving, e.g. losing all your friends, that will continue to discourage moving even for people without mortgages and even if those people rent their furniture.

There are no subscription models for friends... yet. But there are plenty of ways to stay connected with them across physical distance.

Indeed, maybe in this future we have a fully-realized VR metaverse where as long as your subscription is paid up you can go 'visit' and hang out with friends in an idealized environment as much as you like.

Is this tangibly worse than being 'forced' to live geographically near your friends if you want to spend time with them?

Yes, that is tangibly worse. And that will affect people's decision making for sure. As you indicated in your reply a bit further down, it's better to spend time together digitally than not at all. But it's still sufficiently worse than in-person interactions that it'll be a deterrent against people moving for the foreseeable future.

Unless you're positing a kind of experience machine in which you literally can't tell that you're not there, it's always going to be better to interact in person. Otherwise, it's true that if you remove everything that distinguishes A and B, then A and B are the same.

I'm more asking if friend A has to move to a different city for a job opportunity, friend B has to move across the country for his family, and Friend C is stuck in the same place for [reasons], is it better for them to have a virtual environment to hang out, even if it is an imperfect simulation, or should they all forgo other opportunities to maintain close distance with each other?

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