Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 367 posts

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

#151

Post by jollybean »

gilbetron wrote: post #111
jollybean wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech was nerdy in the 1990s. By the 2010's there is a totally different culture. Call it 'All Birds' culture. 1990's there were a lot of weird folks, hippies etc. 2010's 'All Birds' is more commercial, fashionable, a totally different kind of culture. 1990's tech was about tech, it's upstack now, so more like tech applied to classical business problems. AirBnB isn't really a tech company, it happens to be because oth…

There are more "nerdy", non-boring tech people, but you are correct, you won't find them at AirBnB, Facebook, or Amazon. So don't go there if you want to find it. There's a place in my town that uses drones to inspect Air Turbines - I can guarantee there are more interesting people there. Go into small, crazy businesses that exist to do cool tech. "Cool" people, in my experience, are pretty dull, at least for the soc…

My fear is that the 'All Birds Nerds' exclude 'Nerd Nerds'.

'nerd nerds' don't know what they are doing in terms of presentation or communication.

If 'nerd nerds' are 'hip' it's completely by accident.

I also think 'nerd nerds' just say whatever, meaning that occasionally they will say something un-PC, or lacking in empathy and be 'pushed out' for that reason.

There was a time (and some people are still like this) where utterances didn't imply an ideological alignment, it's just something that's said.

In 'All Birds Culture' everyone is careful how they communicate.

I'm sure there are some nerd nerds at AirBnB and frankly not everyone in All Birds Nerd culture is the prototype either but the 'mainstay' at AirBnB would be All Birds Nerds.

Someone who wears a 'Metal' T-shirt, completely un-ironically, because they like Metal, and wore it 5 times without washing it, because they forgot, and have disgusting greasy sideburns just 'because they like it' ... and an article of clothing made out of snakeskin ... that's probably a nerd nerd.

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

#152

Post by JKCalhoun »

davidn20 wrote: post #36
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…

It's definitely an age thing. Don't get me wrong, I know OP feeling all too well. But, it's like complaining about how the music I grew with was the best music. It's more likely the curiosity in you die, rather than the world running out of stuff to be curious about.

I don't think so.

There are waves throughout history where, at times, it's the Wild West and the opportunities and possibilities abound. One such time was when the Internet had become a global backbone, hardware prices were racing to the bottom, we were seeing new display (LCD) technology, battery tech....

But then Corporations happened.

Ads moved in to dominate the web, dollar-chasing sites (also often corporate) drowned everything else out. Search engines too started directing you there — toward the mainstream, dollared sites. As other posters have noted, the devices themselves locked down. Hobbyists go pro?

It's difficult to imagine something like the BBS culture taking off now. But I do believe these things are cyclical, so I am still going along for the ride, hoping to find the fun niches (Raspberry Pi perhaps?).

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

#154

Post by jdrc »

lolinder wrote: post #150

I agree with others that have said that it's a change in you, not in the world. I'm watching my younger brother get into software right now for the first time, and it's delightful. Every day there's something new that he's thrilled about. What's funny is that he's having a blast playing with the same types of tech that I make a living using and get bored by. A few weeks ago it was getting his hobby website up on the…

Has be ever met LAMP?

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

#155

Post by bee_rider »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #91
supernovae wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wealth divide is a different issue and has always been the regardless of “tech” - a new way to sew isn’t tech as we see it but innovation in looms cost many a seamstress their jobs - ditto with mine improvements, manufacturing improvements and so much more - but at the same time it has improved our lives no longer as we locked in a factory 80 hours a week.. To me, tech has been a great equalizer - and while it’s…

You kind of made my point. Not as many people are "locked in a factory 80 hours a week" that is driven by technology (which includes hardware tech). When a new car manufacturing plant opens and says they will create 250 jobs that is far less than it was 20-30 years ago when a new plant opened. Robotic manufacturing, software, etc. have driven that. Pick any industry and technology will have driven some jobs out of it…

It is absurd that we've somehow managed to create a system where manufacturing is too easy, doesn't employ enough people, and that's a looming crisis. If production per person increases, let's give everyone a couple days off.

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

#156

Post by randcraw »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #27

To be blunt, the change is in you and not in "tech". It correlates with you becoming an adult, and your perspective on technology and society changing.

Maybe I'm an outlier, but my story contradicts yours.

I started developing S/W professionally in 1986. It was cool for more than a decade. Then around 2000, software shifted to web dev and mobile, and I lost interest. Before 2000, we wrote code largely from scratch. After 2000, coding increasingly became copying-and-pasting from some ginormous S/W framework written by a committee. (That's why AlphaCode works.) The coder becomes a user. Don't write a function, call somebody else's function. That's programming by proxy.

Tech has changed. To me, that style of programming is a lot less fun.

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

#159

Post by foldr »

eternauta3k wrote: post #147
nicoburns wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> technological progress is still going on, but it's more "your smartphone can now do what your desktop PC did 20 years ago, or your laptop did 10 years ago" In terms of tech that would excite a geeky kid, I think it's more like "you can now buy a $1 microcontroller that's as powerful as desktop PC from 30 years ago". Which is pretty exciting as it means you can throw computing power at all sorts of real world automa…

What microcontroller are you thinking of?

Quite a few of the following options would give a 386SX from 1992 a run for its money in terms of raw computing power:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/embedded-microcon...

To compete with a high end 486 desktop from 1992 you might have to pay a bit more than $1, particularly if you want floating point.

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

#160

Post by sokoloff »

eternauta3k wrote: post #147
nicoburns wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> technological progress is still going on, but it's more "your smartphone can now do what your desktop PC did 20 years ago, or your laptop did 10 years ago" In terms of tech that would excite a geeky kid, I think it's more like "you can now buy a $1 microcontroller that's as powerful as desktop PC from 30 years ago". Which is pretty exciting as it means you can throw computing power at all sorts of real world automa…

What microcontroller are you thinking of?

ESP8266/32 is slightly over a $1 but still within the spirit of “more like $1 micro”.

Confining more strictly to $1.00, STM32F030F4P6 (48MHz 32-bit M0) is in spitting distance to a 386 or 20MHz 68030 for some workloads. (50 MHz 486-DX2 was introduced in ‘92, but the typical desktop PC of 1992 was much lower spec.)

Post reply on HN