The biggest chilling effect I noticed, even as a developer who refuses to use AI, is that I feel like I can no longer ask my co-workers for advice. When I do, I get the the AI equivalent of “let me Google that for you, was that so hard?” So even without using it, I feel cut off from the normal places I would use to learn and improve my coding skills.

You can do it! I’m rooting for you!

I did this one not too long ago! One thing that helped was recognizing that there’s no “roar” delay like when the first one shows up. You can just attacking as they fall down from the ceiling. Second was trying to optimize for damage to take one out asap, and reduce the amount of time you need to dodge both of them simultaneously. For me that looked like Barbed Bracelet, Flintsteel, and Beast Crest. Good luck!

We can. Thankfully though, art is plentiful and we don’t have to.

I’m not super into retro tech, but It’s become clear how advancements in technology aren’t strictly positive. The things that get taken away aren’t obvious and they aren’t advertised. Things like ad-free interfaces, fewer privacy concerns, faster loading times because it isn’t running dozens of background requests, less UI friction from popups, modals, and elements shifting on the page, no barrages of notifications, no perverse incentives where the user is the product.

Retro tech isn’t immune to any of those things, but it is refreshing when you return to one of these devices and discover it has features you didn’t realize had been taken from you.