Libb

What are ways to minimize that besides not using Google?

1. Do less online, and more offline?

My journal is paper-based and so are most of the stuff I write, my agenda is paper-based (ok, they still can track the agenda of the people I have appointments with :p), my sketches are seldom shared online, the few photos I value are printed and not stored online. Most people I interact with, I meet them IRL.

2. And what you do online, do it using less or even better none of the gafam products and services?

I mean, they want our data. Why make it easy for them to get that while also giving them money to do it?

After 35+ years being their customer, I'm slowly but definitely switching from Apple to Linux. Not because Apple sells bad products (they're great working tools, I used to earn a decent living working with Mac and iOS) but because I don't want anything to do with them and their greed (making unfixable/unrepairable device on purpose) and their overarching ability and self-entitlement to destroy every ounce of privacy we once took for granted, as citizens of free and democratic countries.

Even GNU/Linux, I'm starting to wonder if it's not just a stopgap for me as I really do not agree with the 'moralization' of everything that I see happening in FLOSS. Freedom as I define it means people should be allowed to think and speak freely, no matter how much I disagree with them, their ideas and even their fundamental values.

Edit: That may not be much but here is a few of the things I have changed (beside re-using analog a lot more)

• My main computer is now running GNU/Linux. I keep a Mac for a few specifc tasks and because I don't wnat to throw it away.
• I do not use iCloud anymore (and certainly not Google Drive), and I switched to a small German cloud company (Filen.io). It offers less features, but it's fully encrypted and secure and don't track me (check my last blog post if you want to read my reasoning for picking them and not some of the many alternatives),
• I use Proton Mail (I keep my Gmail activa as a trash email, though and only for as long as I will need to transfer all my accounts elsewhere).
• I use LibreOffice instead of MS Office.
• Also, I quit most subscriptions services. Instead, I will donate to FLOSS alternatives even though I often get less features in exchange for my money... I get way more privacy (and freedom).
• The only one I have a hard time leaving is YT: most creators I enjoy are there, not elsewhere.
• Also, I started reading printed books instead of ebooks (here again, feel free to check my blog to see why and how it's going ;)

edit: clarifications and some details.

Yep, I drink tea (I already was) and decaffeinated coffee. For the most part, I drink good old water.

I learned to ignore it to some extend

That must not have been an easy thing to do, and I feel for you knowing how omnipresent coffee is. Heck, I had my first coffee I was not 9 year-old. I remember it vividly, it was a large and thick cup (to my kid eyes at least) half filled with black coffee (not the tinted water many people erroneously call 'coffee'), without milk but with sugar, way too many. I liked it, probably because of the too many sugar in it, and I never quit drinking coffee for 50 years or so, up until very recently and only because my doctor told me so.

As for the smell, obviously I would not compare it to poop like you did but I reckon there is one thing they may both remotely share, very remotely though, a kind of 'earthy' smell?

I call them Satan’s dick because of how inedible they are and how they ruin anything they’re mixed in.

:)

What seemingly random thing do you vehemently hate?

Hate is a strong word, with or without vehemency.

There are things I despise (most media, social or traditional, being an example of), there are things I don't like (bananas), stuff and behaviours I disagree with (certainties and personal opinions used as indisputable truth, violence), and then there are people I dislike, some deeply (like... nope, I won't name anyone) but I'd rather not hate. Not anymore, like I may have hated when I was younger.

Hate helps no one solve any issue, helps no one in becoming a better person. It certainly does not help me, quite the opposite.

My spouse and I have been living for the last 25 years in a small apartment in a big city. It's 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 living room + kitchen and a couple closets. I reckon the whole surface of our place would barely qualify as enough for a 'master bedroom' to the average US menage but we're not Americans so we don't care ;)

We're not poor (we're not rich, either). We simply have chosen to live like that. Learning to make with the little space we live in. Exactly like we have chosen a couple decades ago to not own a car (and to not take the plane) anymore. We want to try to reduce the amount of waste we generate and reduce our 'ecological footprint' on this planet.

Trying here being the important word: we do our best but there are obviously many things we could do better and a few we probably can't improve much upon (like, I have lifelong health issues that require regular medical care and surgery, which means a lot of waste are being created just to keep me alive a little longer but, nope, I don't feel like ending myself sooner would be a good idea, not even to spare the planet some waste, sorry ;)

Alas, I don't think that's being cynical at all. Or maybe I'm, too?

In written form — as long as there is a common language/ability to read, and a willingness to read too — ideally followed by a discussion (most preferably IRL, as you can easily see the other person's emotions and adjust your own communication to it) about whatever was read.

The (lack of) willingness to read is something that worries me a lot.

Not because I I see so many younger people focusing on YT content (or on any de-Googled version of YT), videos are a great tool and they have a legit place in most teaching/learning but they also can't replace books. So, when I see so many younger people using videos only, as well as many people my age who so easily have forgo books too), and when you start realizing university students seemingly cannot read books anymore... That's an issue. A serious one.

I'm also surprised people seem to not realize how much more efficient a text (be it a book, or an article) is compared to a video when one wants to study something, aka work on it and not just watch it for fun.

And even for fun, this time it's purely a personal preference: I prefer reading a text (and let my own brain/imagination decide what the characters or props look like), than watching it and being told that they look like this or that.

It may also be that I'm one of those old 50+ dude that don't get it and just don't realize how much better/cooler videos are compared to books. I doubt it, but I'm willing to admit I don't get it.

Debian (desktop) and Mint (laptop), because I don't need to use the latest version of every app I use and because it works so well.

If I had to chose a single one, it would be Debian but I don't have to chose ;)

Even less screen than during the week. More time spent with my spouse, more reading(, more writing), more walking and more sketching.

Not at all a game changer, for me.

I mean, it's just another and one more type of cable. Sure, in theory it's simpler than many various cables and it's even less stupid than the previous USB types, but it's still a mess.

At least, for non-geek me, those cables are a mess as I need to be able to distinguish between the exact same cable to find which one is USB-C or Thunderbolt, between the various versions of USB-C itself, and then between USB-C that comes with or without power delivery, and with what power limitation? And then, despite USB-C supposedly being a standard there are still too many cables that just won't work with certain devices because reasons.

Add to that the many USB-C docks (and dongles) that work... more or less reliably and more or less as marketed (even more so under Linux, but those issues exist under Mac and under Windows as well).

Older cables and ports were cumbersome, and thick and whatever but, as far as I'm concerned, for the most part they just worked like they were supposed to. And I never had an issue knowing which cable to plug into which port as they all looked, you know, different.

Nowadays, I have to label each one of my USB-C cable with some masking tape so I can identify it in a glimpse without wasting my time trying them all one by one.

Edit: some clarifications.

I have no idea but I imagine most should be younger than I am (50+)