Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy • Hacker News Board

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#371

Post by bambax » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 8:40 AM UTC

thowar2 wrote: post #34

Education should be on this list. The root of all these problems stem from a lack of effective education. 1) The current methods are highly ineffective for teaching By getting more effective at teaching children, and helping them to self educate, we get better informed citizens who can interpret news more accurately and effectively participate in democracy. 2) The current goals for education do not align with current…

> The root of all these problems stem from a lack of effective education.

Does it? Many people with a college degree hold political beliefs one would consider unwieldy; Bannon went to Harvard.

It seems startups themselves are part of the problem, so one can doubt they will bring the solution. "Disruption" is another word for tearing society apart, ignoring legal norms designed to protect citizens from corporations.

The shift to online shopping -- actually, to online everything -- let people do most things from the comfort of their homes without ever meeting anyone.

"Fake news" were never a problem before Facebook and the bubble economy, where money is made by keeping people in a safe environment.

A better request would be: how to make people quit Facebook and stop using smartphones.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#372

Post by realusername » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 9:35 AM UTC

clarkmoody wrote: post #323

realusername wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've never tried what? Private schools? I don't see how this would work since schools are always expensive to run by nature and the working class is getting poorer (for those still having a revenue), I don't see this working very well.

Private schools are required to compete with "free" public schools. > I don't see how this would work since schools are always expensive to run by nature and the working class is getting poorer (for those still having a revenue), I don't see this working very well. That's why in my comment I said I don't want to hear this comeback. It's as predictable as sunset that every time someone mentions a free market in educat…

So you don't want to hear about this argument but you have nothing else against it than "we never tried it"? It's does not seem to be very convincing.

It's already difficult for the working class with a free school so I can't imagine it would be better with a non-free one, the alternative to no public schools is simply no schooling at all for some people

> How well does the current system educate the poor?

You need to ask the US government for that, most public school systems are working well in western Europe so the US must be doing something wrong somewhere.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#373

Post by rjtavares » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 11:08 AM UTC

CalChris wrote: post #138

city41 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology is also inevitable. Nothing you mention can be stopped. So standing up even more technology to help balance things is at the very least a noble effort.

Is Uber technology or is it a Ponzi scheme? I admire their technology at the same time as I have absolutely no faith in their ability to ever turn a profit, and more particularly, ever be a net benefit. No, the technology label is not sufficient. It isn't an immunity necklace. It doesn't mean inevitability. I say this as an engineer.

A company isn't a technology, it's a business model built on technology. Uber's technology (mobile-enabled P2P networks connecting service providers to customers) is definitely unavoidable. Uber's business model isn't.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#374

Post by makomk » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 11:35 AM UTC

drabiega wrote: post #184

baron816 wrote: post #23

I think an important question to ask with regards to Democracy is "why do people believe the things they believe" or "how do they acquire their political beliefs?" The biggest influencers are likely 1) their family and 2) their friends. Essentially, they come from social interaction. People need a (fun) way to increase the number of real social interactions they have with other people. What's really dangerous right n…

I don't think this is going to be possible until the basic arguments over what information sources are factual is resolved. Over the past decade I've seen the social structures that I grew up bifurcate because discussion between the two sides is basically impossible.

I don't think the basic arguments over facts are going to be resolved so long as people shun those who don't agree with them politically. Especially in the current social media climate, false claims spread like wildfire while the debunkings languish because people only spread or listen to stuff that supports their existing beliefs. My Twitter feed is probably typical for HN and I've been seeing this multiple times a day. There isn't even any media panic over it like the one over conservative "fake news" because it supports their existing beliefs too; often journalists are helping spread the claims on social media like everyone else.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#375

Post by Kliment » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 12:38 PM UTC

RangerScience wrote: post #367

logfromblammo wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I blame the grandparent post by eevilspock for loading the question. I don't think it can even be answered with that assumption included. Let's say you have a cobbler, who makes shoes. He recently lost his job to the burgomeister's new Elfbot 4000, that can make the same quality of shoe, but turns out 2 dozen pairs in a single night. The Elfbot 4k runs all week on a single saucer of milk, without sleeping. The cobble…

Ah! I hadn't noticed that you weren't the question's author. I really like your summation that "can't get the capital in a capitalist society through the use of their obsoleted skill". Arguably, the benefit of the cobbler could be a) highly custom small batch work, b) expertise to maintain the Elfbot, and c) a thinking mind behind the task. Elfbot will not improve by itself, the cobbler would.

But you have to remember that the one machine has put a large number of cobblers out of work, and you need very few for the tasks you listed, so the total displacement is still problematic.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#376

Post by saalweachter » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 1:03 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #354

saalweachter wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I hear techies grumble about education constantly. Our education system is teaching the wrong skills or not challenging students or just an elaborate babysitting racket. I hear teachers, on the other hand, complain that after decades of trying everything they can, they've realized that they cannot help students unless those students have safe, stable, supportive home lives. It's easy to say we should introduce c…

None of those are particular hard. Start by ending snap and using the money to increase the number of meals in schools to three a day. Second those meals must be some protein, some veggies and potatoes, pizza, etc are not food.

One of the difficulties in guaranteeing adequate childhood nutrition is that children are only in schools for about 180 days a year, in the US, but need to eat approximately 365 days each year.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#377

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

tsycho wrote: post #296

DougN7 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've rewritten my comment three times so far ... My wife and I are fortunate enough that she can be a stay at home mom. I grew up the same way. Were middle class, though increasingly probably slightly mid to upper these days. We don't need the babysitter, and want our kids to be educated, so that is the focus. We help them with homework, etc. We're lucky. So from my perspective, having both parents working is the roo…

It's not just about money. Even if parents can afford to have one of them be stay at home, neither parent might want to be the one staying at home. Being a stay at higher parent is an incredibly difficult, stressful and under appreciated job so to many well educated couples, it's not appealing at all.

[deleted]

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#378

Post by basch » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 1:30 PM UTC

thowar2 wrote: post #356

germinalphrase wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a teacher, I would kill for a collaborative curriculum and assessment tool. A "backend" service for creating, managing, and personalizing curriculum materials would go a long way to mitigate the absolutely astounding amount of redundant labor that goes on in schools ( you're really creating a comprehension quiz for To Kill a Mockingbird from scratch? ). Contrary to popular belief - even here on HN - teachers are c…

Hey check out Common Curriculum [1] they are part of the way there. [1] http://www.commoncurriculum.com/

how do teachers who have never met each other find each others work and collaborate?

this product looks like only people within the same team can work together. that means thousands of teachers all repeating the same steps.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#379

Post by fpig » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 1:36 PM UTC

Kluny wrote: post #139

thowar2 wrote: post #34

Education should be on this list. The root of all these problems stem from a lack of effective education. 1) The current methods are highly ineffective for teaching By getting more effective at teaching children, and helping them to self educate, we get better informed citizens who can interpret news more accurately and effectively participate in democracy. 2) The current goals for education do not align with current…

We can start moving toward an education system that works once we agree on some core values. Someone else said that the goal of education is to produce factory workers. I disagree. I think the goal of education is to allow one teacher to effectively babysit up to 30 children at once. With both parents working, it simply isn't possible for them to give kids the attention they need to keep them healty and sane, let alo…

This is a fallacy inherent to the modern mentality of obsessing over your child's safety that is likely counterproductive on average.

Children of school age DO NOT need babysitting. When I was a kid, everyone's mom worked and we kids just stayed at home or played together and were perfectly fine. There were zero kids who had a babysitter when they were 7 years old. Zero. Never heard of it. This was the late 80s / early 90s during the breakup of socialism. There was even a war going on for a few of those years.

I can't even imagine the level of ridicule a child would have endured if their friends had found out they had a babysitter.

Children don't just randomly burst into flames if they're left alone.

And I seriously doubt 30:1 is a significant part of the problem. Look at countries with successful school systems. Ours also used to be, but slowly got worse with time as we adopted western attitudes towards children and parenting. The schools themselves didn't change significantly, yet the outcomes became worse.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#380

Post by brbrodude » Wed, Feb 01, 2017, 1:38 PM UTC

ihsw wrote: post #78

baursak wrote: post #46

Democracy can be improved by having democracy in the workplace. Modern corporations are run like totalitarian, authoritarian regimes with top-down orders being barked down. If you disobey, you're out. People in Western democracies are no longer putting up with non-democratic control of their political institutions, but are completely oblivious to non-democratic control of their economic institutions and are perfectly…

I would never work at a company structured like this and if you're implying we impose rules on companies to operate like democracies then that's even more dangerous than Trump.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler#Semco_1990.E2.8...

Watch Ricardo Semler's TedTalk.