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Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

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Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#103

Post by gilbetron »

rcarmo wrote: post #26
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

To your point about 3D printing and robots, we haven’t really moved the needle that much. We’ve made it easy for anyone to print a “cool” robot, sure, but it isn’t necessarily a _useful_ one. As a former “maker” and electronics hack I think lot of maker stuff has devolved into “cool” stuff that consists of wire hangers and servos with RGB lighting and very little actual value. But coolness doesn’t really mean much wh…

Huh? I don't follow. 3D Printing and robot are moving far faster than ever before. Sure, you aren't going from "no 3d printing" to "3d printing", but that's like complaining about food today because it isn't like when you were a kid and got McDonalds once a month and how awesome that was!

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#104

Post by chitowneats »

supernovae wrote: post #59
screye wrote: post #49

Economies of scale ruined it. Good indie games like Super meat boy & Hollow Knight take more human resources than AAA-gamechanger Doom did, back in the day. Your 'kind of useful but fun/dirty' hacker project either becomes ad-infested to survive or is too-useful and gets copied by a big-company. If your problem is cool enough and you can solve it, investors will throw millions at you in hopes of making a global succe…

We still get indy games year over year that take the industry by storm. factorio, stardew valley, undertale, don’t starve, super hot, goat simulator, cup head, rocket league, kerbal space program and so many others. heck steam, Sony and Microsoft are competing to distribute this IP and open it up across platforms and it’s never been better.

Great list. I would add Hades and Slay the Spire.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#106

Post by gilbetron »

hwers wrote: post #52
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

Are you sure? I'd like to hear the take of someone in their early twenties on this. My feeling is that a lot of them are terrified by it themselves too.

Terrified of it? If it is terrifying, it is hardly boring, it would seem!

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#110

Post by kissgyorgy »

1. Tech did not stop being cool for everyone, just you.

2. You are right that a lot of startups are working on stupid "problems", it frustrates me too. We don't need yet another social network / image sharing service / funny face manipulator software.

3. There are an insane number of real problems nobody is solving (yet) with software. People need to find those problems FIRST, not the other way around (have an idea not solving a real-world problem.)

4. In a sense, a lot of problems are solved, yes. For example, the world don't need "site builders" anymore, because of Wordpress and no-code tools.

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