Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble • Hacker News Board

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#111

Post by jpetso » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 6:50 PM UTC

darod wrote: post #70

isostatic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a good thing. In our Delhi office, each elevator has an attendant who's sole job is to push the button of the floor you want. This means less space in the lift for passengers, and lifts being taken out of commission because there's nobody to push the button. Removing this job (by having the technology to allow passengers to select their floor themselves) means improvement for the users. The same applies t…

>We deal with those issues by education (so people can do better jobs that aren't automated), and social safety nets. However, there really are no social safety nets and the US continues to decrease investments in education year after year. Additionally, I rarely hear of companies reinvesting that money into educating their employees or the community. >If a robot can do your job, it's a terrible job. This is a bit of…

> Others value service more and robots have yet to match the service quality of a human.

That would imply that the robot cannot do the job, so it doesn't really contradict the parent's statement.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#112

Post by slackingoff2017 » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC

GavinMcG wrote: post #84

slackingoff2017 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UBI is welfare with a different name. The results will be the same. Some people will sit on their asses and never work a single day but the majority of the population would keep working. The extra money would become meaningless because prices would adjust to accommodate it. We have to keep in mind that you can't just create money and hand it out and make everyone rich. If everyone had 10x as much money prices would e…

> The extra money would become meaningless because prices would adjust to accommodate it. That's not actually supported in the literature.

The value of any currency is how much real stuff you can buy with it. If there's 20% more dollars in circulation each one would be worth 20% less.

This is why UBI is wealth distribution. Too keep the UBI money from being worthless it can't be printed money, it needs to be money taken from someone else.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#113

Post by jodrellblank » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 6:58 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #102

jboggan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not easy to uproot and move from an economically depressed area to an active metropolis. I've done it (Athens, GA to San Francisco in late 2012) and it was incredibly expensive and involved a large amount of personal credit use, cash assistance from family, and time. It was a huge stretch at the time for me to move across the country and break into a new industry, and I did it as a single man, willing and…

What I don't understand is why people don't use the time they have in the low cost-of-living area to develop the skills (via the Internet) that would make them attractive to employers in big cities? That was my approach - I lived at home with my parents after graduation, basically did nothing but program (both for work and after work), and after 3 years Google came knocking and paid for my move out to Silicon Valley.…

Google employs ~70k people (https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-ti...)

That puts you as 70k in 300M ~= the top 0.025% of people.

Can tens of millions make their future plans "become smart and capable enough to be in the top 0.025% within 3 years"?

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#114

Post by isostatic » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:00 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #63

isostatic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a good thing. In our Delhi office, each elevator has an attendant who's sole job is to push the button of the floor you want. This means less space in the lift for passengers, and lifts being taken out of commission because there's nobody to push the button. Removing this job (by having the technology to allow passengers to select their floor themselves) means improvement for the users. The same applies t…

Self-service is a mixed bag. Yes, I like ATMs and Netflix (or Redbox). But I hate self-service at grocery stores especially if I'm buying produce etc. I'm not a big fan at home improvement stores much of the time either.

On the other hand I was listening to a podcast when I popped into boots to buy lunch. Fairly busy so there was a queue, I drew the short straw and got directed to the legacy kiosk. This means having to pause what I was listening too, lose concentration, and switch into conversation mode for no benefit at all.

Ikea is simply far easier to self-scan. Back in the olden days you could scan your shopping in the supermarket as you put it into the trolley. Rather irellevent now when nobody does a "weekly shop" in person any more but far better than the "put into conveyor". Go back far enough and you used to have to ask someone for every item you wanted, no self picking.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#115

Post by dageshi » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:02 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #102

jboggan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not easy to uproot and move from an economically depressed area to an active metropolis. I've done it (Athens, GA to San Francisco in late 2012) and it was incredibly expensive and involved a large amount of personal credit use, cash assistance from family, and time. It was a huge stretch at the time for me to move across the country and break into a new industry, and I did it as a single man, willing and…

What I don't understand is why people don't use the time they have in the low cost-of-living area to develop the skills (via the Internet) that would make them attractive to employers in big cities? That was my approach - I lived at home with my parents after graduation, basically did nothing but program (both for work and after work), and after 3 years Google came knocking and paid for my move out to Silicon Valley.…

A fundamental understanding that not everyone can get positions at those companies because those companies will always take the top 30% (or whatever) of people with skills they desire.

If everyone decides to take your approach companies will simply become more selective, not employ more people than they need too, no matter how good they are.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#116

Post by wott » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:05 PM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #45

d3ad1ysp0rk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in tech rarely feel the squeeze to the degree that those in service / manufacturing industries do.

We get paid ok but most of us barely have one home. There is no common bond between the regular tech guy and a successful VC. Different worlds.

> We get paid ok but most of us barely have one home.

If the average 'tech' worker is 28 and single, that's normal, not a sign of 'squeezing'.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#117

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:06 PM UTC

jodrellblank wrote: post #113

nostrademons wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is why people don't use the time they have in the low cost-of-living area to develop the skills (via the Internet) that would make them attractive to employers in big cities? That was my approach - I lived at home with my parents after graduation, basically did nothing but program (both for work and after work), and after 3 years Google came knocking and paid for my move out to Silicon Valley.…

Google employs ~70k people ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-ti... ) That puts you as 70k in 300M ~= the top 0.025% of people. Can tens of millions make their future plans "become smart and capable enough to be in the top 0.025% within 3 years"?

That assumes an ordered ranking of people and of employers, a premise I reject.

Google is one of several thousand employers that are both hiring and pay reasonably well. Most of the other ones will also fly you out and pay for relocation if they want you. At the same time I was interviewing with Google, there was even a 3-person startup that was willing to fly me out to SF to interview, except that I didn't really care about their business. If you don't get into Google, there's still Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Stripe, AirBnB, Square, Twitter, Netflix, Tesla, Lyft, Dropbox, Cisco, Intel, Juniper, NVidia, EBay, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Ericsson, JP Morgan Chase, and many other companies. Most of those are perfectly acceptable employers; they may not have the prestige of Google, but you can make a good living and possibly even end up wealthier than at Google.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#118

Post by isostatic » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:06 PM UTC

darod wrote: post #70

isostatic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a good thing. In our Delhi office, each elevator has an attendant who's sole job is to push the button of the floor you want. This means less space in the lift for passengers, and lifts being taken out of commission because there's nobody to push the button. Removing this job (by having the technology to allow passengers to select their floor themselves) means improvement for the users. The same applies t…

>We deal with those issues by education (so people can do better jobs that aren't automated), and social safety nets. However, there really are no social safety nets and the US continues to decrease investments in education year after year. Additionally, I rarely hear of companies reinvesting that money into educating their employees or the community. >If a robot can do your job, it's a terrible job. This is a bit of…

Service is far better at somewhere where I can order and pay from an iPad at the table or a kiosk, sometimes humans meet the levels of service I get from the robot - i.e immediate service without having to attract attention, not getting the wrong thing, but it's not universal.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#119

Post by wott » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC

sidlls wrote: post #42

maxxxxx wrote: post #4

He should rename this to "Working outside the millionaire bubble". Plenty of people in tech feel the squeeze too. What it comes down to is that a lot of people with money have lost touch with the rest.

Plenty of people in tech, especially in the Bay Area, have never known anything but a quite comfortable middle class (or better) life. They're very much disconnected ("in a bubble") from what it's like to live a lower-class (which has an upper income much higher than the poverty level) life in this country. The disconnect between high-paid techies and the lower-class is in many respects far greater than between the b…

No matter how big money people make and how comfortable their way of life is, they always think themselves as lower-middle-class and claim they are on the verge of financial difficulties.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#120

Post by rogerthis » Sat, Aug 12, 2017, 7:14 PM UTC

unknown_apostle wrote: post #60

Working class people are being subjected to ultra efficient hypercapitalism, as in Uber drivers discovering they worked for free when they need to purchase a new car. Meanwhile Wall Street has been bailed out 2 times in the last 15 years alone with monetary policy. How many people went to jail? (And they haven’t learned a thing, on the contrary and quite spectacularly so.) If you want to know where the tech bubble co…

Join this to the hedonism and nihilism of post-war generations and you have the Steve Bannon's Generation Zero documentary.