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patrickcollison.com

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Re: Questions

#191

Post by trimbo »

> The Empire State Building was built in 410 days

At least one reason is that we have substantially different safety regulations since we're not accepting of deaths on a project like that. 5 people died on that project. 11 died to build the Golden Gate. Original Bay Bridge? 24.

They actually had a rule of thumb at the time: 1 death for every $1M spent on a project[1]. Any metric like that would be absolutely unacceptable today.

[1] - https://www.npr.org/2012/05/27/153778083/75-years-later-buil...

Re: Questions

#192

Post by zbentley »

> Why can't I debug a function without restarting my program?

Given the number of people here pointing out mature, powerful systems where this is totally, easily possible, I think a more to-the-point question might be "given the availability of debuggable systems, why are systems that do not value this capability so much more common/used?"

...however, I have yet to see a good answer (or even discussion--people love to feel superior and defend their choices) to that question, and it comes up a lot.

Re: Questions

#193

Post by mhjas »

unixhero wrote: post #47
chucky wrote: post #35

> Why are there so many successful startups in Stockholm? Several reasons. First, you need to recognize that any Sweden-based startup will, when it gets to be known internationally, have a Stockholm-based office. So it's not about a city of 1 million inhabitants, it's a country of 10 million that's the true number here. As an example, I believe Spotify opened their original offices in both Stockholm and Göteborg more…

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

I don't think it is that relevant. You can be happy in Sweden and miserable in Malta. They funny thing is that people tend to say the same thing about SV, but because of the nice weather. Not to say that dark afternoon can't be special, but it is generally everything else (like having something relevant to work on) that makes it so. And that doesn't necessarily lose its value if it is sunny instead.

Re: Questions

#194

Post by Mizza »

panic wrote: post #8

> What's the successor to the book? And how could books be improved? > Books are great (unless you're Socrates). We now have magic ink. As an artifact for effecting the transmission of knowledge (rather than a source of entertainment), how can the book be improved? How can we help authors understand how well their work is doing in practice? (Which parts are readers confused by or stumbling over or skipping?) How can…

This isn't for everybody, but I would say Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), where words are sequentially presented in place to the reader, which has significantly changed the way I read.

I wrote my own implementation of RSVP, which has eBook reader support, and now it is absolutely my preferred method of reading, and I read at 1000WPM. Though normal books are still enjoyable, they feel tedious and slow.

The project is here:

https://github.com/GlanceApps/Glance-Android

(It needs some help being updated for recent versions of Android, please let me know if you'd like to be involved! It has a new back-end API in place already and it just needs a few simple updates.)

Re: Questions

#195

Post by jonex »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #24
gotbeans wrote: post #18

> Why can't I connect my editor to a running program and hover over values to see what they last were? What the actual fuck am I witnessing.

I remember when I was 18, back in 1998, installing a specially licensed copy of this thing called "Visual C++" and doing just that, i.e the thing they call 'debugging'.

As I understand his point, it's about not having to pause the program. This seems like actually a quite useful feature, and probably not that hard to implement in say, visual studio (possibly requiring a manual trigger for efficiency). So the question is, why has it not happened in 20 years. Why are debuggers at basically the same level of sophistication as 20 years ago, when there's seemingly a lot of low hanging fruit. I think he have a point, and adding to that, how come so many environments aren't even up to par with the state 20 years ago. Many people doesn't even use a prober debugger, deferring to printf debugging and at most command line GDB in exceptional cases, due to bad environment support.

Re: Questions

#196

Post by scottmsul »

> Why are certain things getting so much more expensive?

I too would like to know the answer to this question. I suspect it may have to do with low interest rates and easily available credit. For example, if buyers are willing to get a 50 year mortgage instead of a 20 year mortgage (and banks are willing to lend it), prices will increase to match demand.

Re: Questions

#197

Post by JProthero »

nigelcleland wrote: post #103
ddevault wrote: post #90

>Why do there seem to be more examples of rapidly-completed major projects in the past than the present? I'm no historian so this is probably misguided, but I feel like this is an indicator for a society on the decline. Corruption is increasingly rampant in both the public and private sectors, and money is being siphoned off at every step. If we don't figure out how to fix it, mounting costs and inefficiencies could…

RE rapidly completed projects A primary driver of the 'slowness' is a major focus upon safety in the workplace. Take a look back at the death rates per 1000 workers for some of the historical projects that people often like to point to and then look at a modern project. The second element is that these safety elements are often enforced by regulation. For example, look at how much extra scaffolding is in use today du…

The construction and infrastructure boom in China over the past few decades suggests major projects can still be completed rapidly, even in spite of widespread corruption.

Political will can be an important driving force for pushing through major projects, but the most impressive feats of engineering are seen when there is substantial pent-up demand in an economy that can suddenly be supplied, usually due to social or technological change.

I think major projects could still be completed quickly in developed economies if the incentives were to align in the right way, but we don't see it often because the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.

India and Africa are probably the places to look to for rapidly completed major projects over the next few decades, and perhaps we could see significant industrial development in space at some point if the economics works out.

Re: Questions

#198

Post by Sgt_Apone »

alexpetralia wrote: post #108
kylecordes wrote: post #102

> Why do there seem to be more examples of rapidly-completed major projects in the past than the present? This is a great question, and I echo many of the sentiments here and elsewhere around general complacency, slowing rate of change (even as bits of technology get better faster), and so on. But... One of the reasons that big projects used to happen so fast, is that the interests of people negatively affected by th…

Louis C.K. has a joke exactly about this called "Of Course, But Maybe": "Of course, of course slavery is the worst thing that ever happened. Of course it is, every time it’s happened. Black people in America, Jews in Egypt, every time a whole race of people has been enslaved, it’s a terrible, horrible thing, of course, but maybe. Maybe every incredible human achievement in history was done with slaves. Every single t…

I realize this does not necessarily change the point of the joke, but evidence points to the Egyptian Pyramids being constructed by skilled tradesmen, not slaves. https://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids-h...

Re: Questions

#199

Post by sincerely »

Mizza wrote: post #194
panic wrote: post #8

> What's the successor to the book? And how could books be improved? > Books are great (unless you're Socrates). We now have magic ink. As an artifact for effecting the transmission of knowledge (rather than a source of entertainment), how can the book be improved? How can we help authors understand how well their work is doing in practice? (Which parts are readers confused by or stumbling over or skipping?) How can…

This isn't for everybody, but I would say Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), where words are sequentially presented in place to the reader, which has significantly changed the way I read. I wrote my own implementation of RSVP, which has eBook reader support, and now it is absolutely my preferred method of reading, and I read at 1000WPM. Though normal books are still enjoyable, they feel tedious and slow. The pr…

Isn’t recall way worse for books “read” this way?

Re: Questions

#200

Post by TheCoelacanth »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #146
mvilim wrote: post #130

>> Why do there seem to be more examples of rapidly-completed major projects in the past than the present? A large contributing factor is that major projects today are much more complicated than they were in the past. The tools we have built are always advancing, but the size of the human brain is not. As projects become more and more complicated, they require a larger number of people to collaborate, and that comes…

I travel to Hong Kong every few years to visit family. Each time, there are more MTR stations--and on some occasions, entirely new lines. The MTR is just as complex as BART, if not moreso. I think it's worth considering why some places can build things like a metro fast, but others can't.

I think a big part of Hong Kong's success with metro stations is that they own some of the land surrounding the stations, which means that the huge increase in land values from building a metro station goes back into the metro system, unlike most US systems where most of the increase in land values goes to private land owners.
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