As someone who kickstarted the pebble and has used it daily since then I can say that smart watches have a very narrow area of usefulness at this point.

The text notifications are great, the changeable watch faces are cool, they have all the functionality of the fanciest watch, and there are some genuinely useful apps like pedometers, turn by turn directions, and time management programs.

But at this point no smart watch is as good as they are being marketed. Even the most modest ads make them out to be way more than they are. My pebble really spends most its time just being a watch, and at its price point I'm OK with that. But when we get into apple watch prices that's when I just can't justify the expense for the limited utility.

Wearable tech isn't a fad, it's the future. But we aren't in the future yet, there is a lot to be done before these things are as good as we want them to be.

Off topic, I'm new to hubski, and I will admit to not reading the whole primer page, is there a positive reinforcement mechanic I should be doing for a good discussion?

I think for those of us that know exactly what we want it detracts but for others it adds a new dimension. What was that Henry Ford quote?

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

For the majority of my gaming I prefer the PC, but I do really look forward to what the future has I store when it comes to motion sensitivity and VR. But someone has to make those jumps into those areas and to my eye Nintendo is doing more to pioneer new ideas than the others.

Now compare those changes to the change from the GameCube to the Wii and the to the Wiiu. There was a huge risk and innovation in the introduction of the motion controls and then again with the Wiiu game pad. The latter not doing as well, but still a big change.

It seems to me that Nintendo has been willing to take bigger risks and make bigger changes while the others have stuck with what they know sells.

Does that make them a better company? I don't know. But I hope they keep taking risks and making big changes.

They might not be innovative every time but I feel like they are a lot more innovative than their competition. How different is the xboxone from the original?

I think the problem isn't with reddit itself but more likely with the size of the groups trying to have discussion.

I want to just touch in your first point:

Reddit segregates people into distinct forums of people who all agree with each other, inducing them to engage in groupthink and shift towards increasingly extreme views.

My favorite subreddits have always been the really niche ones; fountain pens, pipe tobacco, coffee, midori, notebooks, urbansurvivalist, etc. And in these smaller communities I think a lot of good discussion happens within the purview of the sub.

Take fountain pens for example, while we might all agree that rollerballs are bad, few of us would agree on what the best nib size/material/design is. I have had the pleasure of reading over many civil and deep discussions over a wide variety of topics in that forum. Most of them are well reasoned and articulate.

It's when you get into the default subs that you lose all capacity for discussion. There you are just a single voice crying out to be heard in a sea of humanity.

If you only spent your time in the defaults of /r/all then you would never have a chance to speak. But in those smaller spaces real discussion can and does happen.

Wow that's a big move. Good to see people standing up in a way that will affect the company as a whole.

In my experience Japan's work culture is harsh and destructive to people well-being. Here is a link to an interesting documentary about it: http://disposableworkers.com