Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#181

Post by creinhardt » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

tomatocracy wrote: post #114

Single subscription payment for news along the lines of the Spotify model. I'd happily pay a single subscription which gave me access to ALL the news websites, and divided payment up based on which articles people click on. Do that without tracking me between the different sites and I'm sold. Pressreader gets close but it only gives you yesterday's print versions (not current online content), it has a few notable gap…

A few different outlets have tried this over the years, and it's never gone that well, as far as I know. I think that was originally the model for Tinypass, which merged with Piano Media. Not sure if they still offer that model or not, but it's the most recent I can think of.

The reality is that for all but the largest news sites, this model won't really work. Say you're in a medium-small city. Even in your best case scenario of like 50% of the population reading your site, you'd still only likely get such a small sum per-article (10-20k pageviews, maybe?) that you'd still have to supplement revenue with advertising and other revenue streams. And now you're back where you started!

I love the idea, but I just struggle to see it happen at scale.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#182

Post by throwaway201103 » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:26 PM UTC

libertine wrote: post #13

Elderly care... in fact this pandemic showed precisely the opposite: our elders were neglected, converted into a statistic that dies more then young people. A complete lack of humanity in a lot of developed countries. This is the example we gave to the upcoming generations, we're fucked when it's our turn lol. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and thinking of ways to solve this, but it's not easy - it's bigger than…

> our elders ... dies more then young people

Um, yes? That's what happens when you get old. It's not lack of humanity, it's just reality.

I see no infrastructure, or tech, or social changes that will stop people from getting old and dying.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#183

Post by Engineering-MD » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

morelandjs wrote: post #74

libertine wrote: post #13

Elderly care... in fact this pandemic showed precisely the opposite: our elders were neglected, converted into a statistic that dies more then young people. A complete lack of humanity in a lot of developed countries. This is the example we gave to the upcoming generations, we're fucked when it's our turn lol. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and thinking of ways to solve this, but it's not easy - it's bigger than…

I'd like to see a tech'd out nursing home. Gaming is really a perfect fit for nursing homes, and it will only make more sense as our population ages. Gigabit internet, house Slack, LAN parties, VR gear, zoom calls with family, rigs for new members... create house guilds. Set the tenants up with streaming setups and let them have fun. I don't think the gear would be prohibitively expensive given the cost of nursing ca…

It would, for the younger age group and it will probably move that way. But the current generation often (but not always) have little interest or grasp of technology, especially computers and games. Additionally with dementia and general cognitive decline it makes it hard to learn new systems and games even if there is interest. But for the gaming generation, care homes certainly look brighter. Imagine the levels of VR in 20-50 years time!

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#184

Post by ajakate » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

mrloba wrote: post #138

Cloud tools for musicians. It's a pain setting up a new environment. So many plugins and libraries etc. Also, version control and backup. All manual.

I started using https://www.bandlab.com/ soon after lockdown started.

It's a collaborative DAW that allows you to record, save, and mix music in the cloud, and even lets you share access and collaborate in real time with others. It was great for sharing ideas with my band when we couldn't really meet up and play in person.

It has a few performance/audio syncing issues being in the browser, but for what we use it for it's an amazing tool.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#185

Post by throwaway201103 » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

mcshicks wrote: post #49

libertine wrote: post #13

Elderly care... in fact this pandemic showed precisely the opposite: our elders were neglected, converted into a statistic that dies more then young people. A complete lack of humanity in a lot of developed countries. This is the example we gave to the upcoming generations, we're fucked when it's our turn lol. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and thinking of ways to solve this, but it's not easy - it's bigger than…

My mother in law is 89 and lives alone in Japan. While it's not perfect it's amazing the difference between the system there vs the system in America. I think one of the problems with Elder care in the US is that it's hard to talk about Elder care while we are still arguing about universal health care. It's also hard to talk about how we could create a similar system in the US, because the basis for the system is adu…

> long term care insurance

LTC insurance is a scam. They will do everything they can to not pay, and most LTC facilities have an organizational structure that makes that possible.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#186

Post by vincentchau » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:32 PM UTC

gjvnq wrote: post #135

Business automation. There seems to be so much that can be easily automated by simple scripts. We just need a better UI and a better way to teach people how to use it.

Interesting idea. I thought that everything in business is automated already. Can you give some examples?

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#187

Post by Aachen » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:32 PM UTC

nmca wrote: post #154

renjimen wrote: post #125

Overpopulation. It's the main source of humanity's current woes and will only get worse with time. We seem to be content with addressing the symptoms rather than the problem. The idea of population control is taboo but will help everyone in the long run.

Most models have the population capping at ~10B, so people don't tend to worry about it any more? (10B number is recalled from "Factfulness", which I'd recommend)

Seconded on recommending factfulness. It's been very helpful to me in seeing the world more the way it is rather than in the negative light you'd get from watching sensational media only.

I actually made a preview of iirc ~10 pages that I found to be very powerful near the beginning of the book, but I don't just want to post it to avoid copyright issues. Shoot me an email at factfulness202012@lgms.nl (just link this comment in the subject or so, no body needed) if you are interested.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#188

Post by wes-k » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:33 PM UTC

wassenaar10 wrote: post #173

renjimen wrote: post #125

Overpopulation. It's the main source of humanity's current woes and will only get worse with time. We seem to be content with addressing the symptoms rather than the problem. The idea of population control is taboo but will help everyone in the long run.

I don't know why people still think that overpopulation is a genuine threat. If anything, there's a genuine threat to industrial societies in that their birth rates are almost all sub-replacement. This is true for countries in North America, South America, East Asia, and Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate

I don’t know why people continue to believe it is not a threat.

Outside of economy, why is replacement rate needed? If the world reduced to 1 billion humans would the Earth be in a better or worse place?

Seems clear to me that fewer humans = less CO2, less deforestation, etc. You can argue less invention too but that’s not as obvious to me given Multiple Discovery (1).

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#189

Post by chad_strategic » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #28

Real news and true unbiased, truth seeking, fact checking journalism.

Wow!

Let's not get to crazy here... fear and hate drive audiences which drives profits.

Also we we need to start with a critical thinking public.

But I'm with you, I'm going to keep hoping.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#190

Post by hansvm » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

creinhardt wrote: post #181

tomatocracy wrote: post #114

Single subscription payment for news along the lines of the Spotify model. I'd happily pay a single subscription which gave me access to ALL the news websites, and divided payment up based on which articles people click on. Do that without tracking me between the different sites and I'm sold. Pressreader gets close but it only gives you yesterday's print versions (not current online content), it has a few notable gap…

A few different outlets have tried this over the years, and it's never gone that well, as far as I know. I think that was originally the model for Tinypass, which merged with Piano Media. Not sure if they still offer that model or not, but it's the most recent I can think of. The reality is that for all but the largest news sites, this model won't really work. Say you're in a medium-small city. Even in your best case…

> you'd still only likely get such a small sum per-article (10-20k pageviews, maybe?) that you'd still have to supplement revenue with advertising and other revenue streams

Advertising and other revenue streams also only pay out per view on a fairly small number of views though, right? Is the problem not that advertising pays more per view than people are willing to in the first place of their own volition?