olcor

Western Union had, hands-down, the best rates and the least hassle for me sending money to my home country. The old reputation of WU just doesn't hold ground any more.

Exactly the same for me. I had a bunch of goals; I fulfilled most of them, and the ones I didn't/couldn't I god much better alternatives for. I have not created any new goals; a lot of changes have happened recently, and fulfillment of my previous ambitions is just keeping me in some sort of skewed confidence that I just need to react to whatever life throws at me now.

Although, I'm thoroughly fed up of what I liked to do earlier; now I'm looking for a new career path. Let's see how it goes.

Apparently Google "can't find" my account.

I was so scared for a while, then I found that all of my family members have the same issue. Then checked HN and breathed a sigh of relief :)

> There are a lot of jaded people here who refuse to accept the way the world is working.

This is HN. Quite a few people here know how the world is working in favor of these things because there's a good chance they built it themselves, or at least know a few people who have.

Of course these products are not for me, and I very much understand that there's a market for the things they sell. Music might be a private matter for me, but it is definitely part of the social lives of a lot of people I know; they derive a lot of enjoyment from comparing different bands/partying/recommending new things. But looking at what the past years (and even before that!) have taught us about the so-called social aspects of technology, it is very difficult for me to believe that communities aren't being pumped for money. Every facebook action (for pure profit motives with no heed to possible harmful consequences of their actions), political agendas festering on social networks, and attempts and successes of being able to manipulate minds of people using such platforms has definitely left a sour taste in the minds of most tech people.

What angered me specifically was the tone-deafness of the article; it didn't mention any of these issues at all, but talked about the topic in a way that it was the best, unbeatable thing ever, and any company not following the mandate would be doomed to irrelevance, which is completely false as quite a few replies here have pointed out.

> Spotify is great, but it’s primarily a single-player experience. Music, on the other hand, is an inherently social experience.

NO.

For me, music is an intensely private experience. I do not want people around me when I'm listening to music. I don't share my music tastes with others. Music is part of my me-time.

I get where the author is coming from, but music is not social all the time. I agree with another comment here, this article just clashes with me in such a way that I want to throw my laptop in anger after reading it.

It's the same thing with games right now, they just pester me to keep connecting. I'd rather prefer playing with random people and then not see them again. The "social+ money" part is so scary that I hope that I am actively going to stay as far from it as I can.

Now I've essentially realized the value of subscriptions over free things powered by ads and "social" wizardry. I'll pay for the good stuff on subscription/donations if the good stuff keeps on being what it is and not some ad-infestation/"social+" injection which keeps ruining the experience.

Personally I have a very simple rule. I don't drink alcohol, and I don't need to have a reason for it. I tend not to give any single reason if anyone asks me about it; just any excuse on top of my head. Most of the time it suffices. The times it doesn't, I give up and let them think whatever they deem fit.

I have no issues against alcohol and people who drink. If people want to judge me on my teetotalism, it's up to them, but their judgement is not going to have any effect on my choice. I made mine and I'm going to stick to it.

I've found that Stoicism helps a lot in dealing with this. The choice to drink is in your hands. Other people's thoughts are theirs, and different people will think differently. You can only control whether you drink or not, so leave the judgement (if any) to others and don't think too much about it.

OK thanks. Great idea nonetheless!

I don’t know if this would work on iOS (or if it’s already implemented), but any idea if I can make the app pop up directly every time I unlock the phone? This would mean that I don’t need open the app manually myself /keep the app on top before I lock the screen.