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Bikeshedding, or why I want to build a laptop

(geohot.github.io)
224 points cspags | 2 comments | 01 Dec 25 01:08 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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forty ◴[07 Dec 25 08:57 UTC] No.46180249[source]▶
I think the kind of laptop this person wishes should simply be made illegal to make. We cannot sustain having all electric devices being thrown after a year or two, these things need to last, to be repairable and make it easy to grab pieces and materials when they die anyway
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Yokolos ◴[07 Dec 25 09:00 UTC] No.46180264[source]▶
> I don’t care one bit about upgradability or customizability. After a year or two, I’m happy to throw it out and buy a new one. It’s not like upgradability is a bad thing, but it usually comes with tradeoffs to weight and power draw, and I’d rather it all be in one solid package glued together. And I don’t like customizability because I like when all the testing and polish work is put into one configuration.

Jesus christ. What a wasteful and selfish way to look at things.

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rikafurude21 ◴[07 Dec 25 09:37 UTC] No.46180424[source]▶
Selfish how, because he clearly does not say that upgradability or customizability are bad things? Its also not like hes proposing something that isnt reality for most manufacturers, especially Apple.
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1. dcanelhas ◴[07 Dec 25 09:47 UTC] No.46180485[source]▶
I think the selfishness here is related to being fine with generating a pile of electronic waste that becomes a problem for everyone else, as long as he can avoid carrying a few ounces extra.

It's hard to recycle electronics, because separating materials that are chemically bonded together is very labor intensive and isn't worth it from the price of aluminum, copper, lithium, etc alone.

It would have to cost more to dispose of a laptop for this to work out financially.

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2. kasey_junk ◴[07 Dec 25 13:44 UTC] No.46181633[source]▶
You’ve identified the real problem. This person’s preferences (and yours and mine) are guided by externalities being priced poorly.

If the consumer was responsible for the real cost of disposal and someone said “I don’t care about repairing it” then it wouldn’t be selfish at all.

But it’s extremely hard to do that. Because if you price proper disposal higher you’ll just get improperly disposed stuff.

A tax on the products to account for this is highly regressive. It’s a complicated muddle.