Antibiotics?
Not simple.
Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
311–320 of 583 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#312transistor.
Also not simple.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#313The IUD.
IUDs aren't simple. The concept of contraception is simple, and condoms (as mentioned elsewhere are), but both of those are old.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically there would be ~2 times less people on Earth and over half of them would work in farming if not for this one invention.
now imagine being someone who dislikes being around lots of people, and especially dislikes being around city people...
Imagine you could move to a small farm town population 62
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#315It's not the inventions that are most important but the thinking processes and curiosity that continue to investigate, tinker, design, and test new ideas and processes. Humans are problem solvers by nature and by survival instinct. Every invention is a product of the mind.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the number of hours saved by Washing machines and Dishwashers. Liberating women from having to do these tasks and instead contributing to the general economy instead.
> the number of hours saved by Washing machines and Dishwashers. This is true, but to some extent over-stated I think. We have a family of five, and don't use our dishwasher. I just do the dishes every morning while I listen to the news on the radio. It takes less than an hour. As far as washing machines, I agree that they are quite convenient, but the truth is most clothing doesn't need to be washed nearly so often…
An HOUR? To do the dishes? That seems like an enormous consumption of time.
I would suggest that you might consider reallocating this time. For example, if you have three children are any of them old enough to help do the dishes? Initially it will take you more time, but children love to contribute to the household at first, until they are taught not to by being told they're doing it wrong.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#317Unix Pipes - BWK pointed out in his memoir how a small piping implementation done in a single day changed Unix(and computing) forever.
APL was around in the late '60s and is basically just pipes.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically there would be ~2 times less people on Earth and over half of them would work in farming if not for this one invention.
> over half of them would work in farming Why would throwing more people at the problem solve or mitigate lack of fertilizer?
More land would necessarily be farmland (i.e. there'd be less land "free" to dedicate to other things); so there'd probably need to be more farmers to work the additional land. Even in the modern world where a farm is mostly robots, one person can only manage so much land and so many robots (essentially the amount of land they can easily traverse in a few hours to check up on.)
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#319The humble ball point pen. People forget how cumbersome and/or expensive it was to write before cheap ball point pens became a thing. You had to use fountain pens. The cheap ones leaked and were an absolute mess to carry around. The ones that didn't leak were expensive. I can now buy more pens for $100 than I'll ever use in years and just stash them everywhere I want
And now you can get a cheap fountain pen that won't leak and writes delightfully. Financially, you're probably better off with hundreds of cheap Bics, but fountain pen ink lasts a long time.
I just started exploring fountain pens (inspired by a previous HN posting), and the feature that appeals to me the most is the variety of ink colors available for fountain pens. Most ballpoint pens seem to have just a handful of ink colors, but it seems to be possible to get a lot more colors for fountain pens, and some of the colors are really exotic.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ... but the truth is most clothing doesn't need to be washed nearly so often as people do. Didn't exactly understand you ... I mean, I can't wear any shirt more than two days in a row before it picks up my body odour and starts stinking (India; hot climate - and this is after 2 baths a day too; no deodorant). So if I don't wash and wear it, I am pretty sure it would bother a lot of people. I can wear pants and trou…
As a counterpoint, here in the US Midwest, I currently have three pairs of jeans, two thermal shirts, and two button downs that I rotate through and wash honestly maybe quarterly. Other clothing items I go through more quickly, but I'm planning to start giving my undershirts a couple rotations before washing them as well. Same with socks. The main thing I've noticed is that natural fabrics don't pick up smells nearly…
Quarterly? Yikes. People can smell you, and you stink, they are just too polite to say anything.
Ask a very trusted friend, one who does laundry regularly, how you smell.