Anil DashImagine a browser where you type in “Taylor Swift” and it doesn’t even admit that her website exists. I write about Atlas, ChatGPT’s new anti-web browser that should come with a warning label. https://www.anildash.com/2025/10/22/atlas-anti-web-browser/
Jonathan Hogg@anildash I'm unclear why you take potshots at people who enjoyed (or still enjoy) text adventure games, though? These were often incredible works of art and the language of using them was well understood by those who played. The whole line about "physical touch" is just incredibly mean and directs your ire at the wrong target. It spoils an otherwise great article.
Bradley Schaefer@jonathanhogg @anildash For real. I’m glad I read the rest of the article, but contempt for text based adventure games was a huge turn off. Describing frustration for finding prompts is fine, but then going on to dunk on people characterized as not knowing the touch of a human being was f-ed up. Come on, man.
@soulcutter @anildash I imagine that the thinking was somehow that text adventure players have gone on to become AI techbros and so this counts as 'punching up', but in reality most are just ordinary people, so this largely ends up punching down instead
"Nerds not getting laid, amirite?" feels like a lazier take than I had expected from Anil
@jonathanhogg @anildash I would assert that the overlap of people who like/liked text based adventures and tech bros is tiny if it exists at all.
Text based adventure fans are Real Ones - people who are authentic to themselves regardless of what society / Anil think of them.
It's hours since I read that, and I'm still harboring feelings about it.
@soulcutter @jonathanhogg I was just goofing on text adventures, I think they're great. I mentioned in the piece that I use a CLI every day?
@anildash I’m generally agnostic about whether people use or like CLIs, but if you meant to be light-hearted then I think you need to go back and look at that line about physical touch again – it is more brutal than you imagine, and particularly unpleasant for many neurodivergent, queer or just shy people who struggled to connect to their peers during a pretty miserable period
@jonathanhogg I don’t think any of them could read it in an intellectually honest way as a slight at any of those situations, speaking as someone who’s neurodivergent myself. It is very plainly obvious that the joke was not framed around any of that, and it would take a lot of work to twist the wording to even imply it. I’m always happy to take critique if I’ve inadvertently been insensitive, but I’m less open to theoretical slights.
@anildash And yet I'm also neurodivergent, played text adventures as a young person and struggled with bullying and isolation, and I absolutely *did* read it that way. I'm absolutely happy to be called a nerd and ribbing on CLIs works in the context of this article, I just don't think the physical touch line was funny and I don't think it added anything to your article except a streak of meanness