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Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

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Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#771

Post by johnmorrison »

Arn_Thor wrote: post #721
johnmorrison wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right about those people, but I'm not talking about them. There are people living in extreme poverty today who won't even be alive anymore by the time sea level rise causes a problem. Who are we to claim that climate change is the most pressing issue facing humanity, when much of humanity faces unrelated life threatening issues?

There are people who are alive today, and who won't be next year because of extreme weather events tied to climate change. And that's before getting into real live issues to do with water rights, habitation, crop resilience to changing weather patterns, energy access and usage. These issues are likely to spark wars in our lifetime (if they haven't already.. Syria and the Arab Spring was tied to crop failures and high…

I'm not sure this is true, at least not on net.

Do you have any scientific evidence showing a net global increase in extreme weather events in the last several decades?

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#772

Post by johnmorrison »

t0astbread wrote: post #708
ncmncm wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most pressing problem for humanity is global climate disruption. Arguably, working on anything that doesn't help there is not just wasted effort, but actively harmful. Wind, solar power, energy storage still have huge room for improvement. Direct solar or wind -> liquid fuel will be essential to adapting fast. Windmills can drive production of liquid ammonia on farms (needing only air and water inputs), for use d…

It's not like climate change is or should be our only concern. Not doing anything against any of humanity's problems could be considered a harmful waste of time and talent maybe.

I agree 100% with you on this. I think the idea that talented people have a moral obligation to spend their time trying to solve humanity's problems or advance our consciousness and curiosity should be much more widespread. Look at where all the ivy league grads are going. It's kind of sad to see.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#773

Post by ReD_CoDE »

briandear wrote: post #602
ReD_CoDE wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything in this world has a value you have to pay. Money comes at the right time if you go the right path in your life. Don't think about money, think about the path you want to go, a path you would be happy to go and money comes in its right time Choose "infinite" goals in your life, and follow them.

That’s reasonable advice, but it’s hard to pay the bills when you are off getting Zen on yourself.

The world is badly designed. We can fix that. ;)

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#774

Post by [deleted] »

johnmorrison wrote: post #766
arnaudsm wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a more scientific approach, the IPCC[1] models show we could see mass migrations between 200M and 1.5B due to climate change before the end of the century. Not a total collapse, but the collapse of a dozen of countries due to unsustainable heat and drought. [1] https://www.ipcc.ch/apps/njlite/srex/njlite_download.php%3Fi...

Yes, this is much more accurate of our best predictions. Bjørn Lomborg says[1] by the end of the century, climate change left unchecked will only lower the global GDP by a 2-4 percentage points of what it would have otherwise grown to , which is going to be 300-1000% higher than today. So basically, best case scenario 980% GDP growth, worst case 288% GDP growth. This shows climate change is a problem, but it's too sl…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#775

Post by johnmorrison »

eitland wrote: post #769
ryanlol wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- Security / Privacy (eg Telegram) But Telegram offers just as much security and privacy as Slack.

1. They are vey different. Those who arent aware of the large differences shouldn't comment as if they are they are subject experts. Telegram might be full of holes but it is a very different thing to Slack. (I use both for different things.) 2. I have my own issues with Telegram (the refusal to introduce sustainable funding, pushing of crypto currencies, possibly also marketing it as more than it is) but except that…

E2E encryption is kind of a fucky thing, some suggest it is fundamentally impossible for central web services and even mobile / desktop apps. Basically, if there is a third party involved in the code besides Alice and Bob, the two can never guarantee E2E encryption.

Web part is simple, as there are countless ways you can get malicious code delivered from what you think is the correct, safe, web server.

Same concept applies to app store / desktop program updates, but with a slightly slower and more difficult attack prospect.

Anyways, Telegram does seem to have the best encryption of any major service, and it's what we use at my company for almost all internal communications.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#776

Post by ivanjaros »

Take when someone streams on youtube - it is exactly that. Ability to stream video live, let your viewers chat amongst eachother + being able to receive donations. With Youtube becoming more Goolag than before, and because Youtube is actively becoming platfrom just like any other where they don't share profits with creators anymore, I storngly believe this is where it's going to be "at" for startups. I already looked into it and I believe the issue with large data storage and traffic is now solved with cheap hardware AND P2P streaming like bittorent and the js client for the web browser.

Then you can see that YT creators now rival TV - easily. So I believe the internet will transform in a way where an youtube channel will become something like a tv show or late night show or whatever TV equivalent from the past. People will be actively looking and subscribing to these individuals or shows on purpose and will be consuming them periodically like they did in the past with television. Hence video is the tech I'd look into and the concept of making good platform/s for creators and viewers to connect and interact(!).

Blogs are dead. FB is good only for groups(many people in one place with many interests can easily connect). Twitter is pure pollitical cancer. Instagram is just for worshipping attention whores..eh "models". Any non-mainstream social network became too singular because people who were kicked out form ms sn went there. So all in all, social networks are dead. But video, video is a medium that is too deeply rooted in humans for some reason. I guess the ease of consumption? So I stirngly believe that is the way to go. I mean, you have hundreds of streaming services nowadays...no one will be buying all of them. People still want to consume good content but TV is shite and these online stremaing service will become unafordable. So there will have to be alternatives for people and as I have mentioned, YT is cutting sharing of profits with creators(not to mention censorship), so these creators will be looking for alternative means of earning and creating and sharing.

(I didn't proof-read my response so sorry for typos, I type fast and don't have time for this)

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#777

Post by ryanlol »

eitland wrote: post #769
ryanlol wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- Security / Privacy (eg Telegram) But Telegram offers just as much security and privacy as Slack.

1. They are vey different. Those who arent aware of the large differences shouldn't comment as if they are they are subject experts. Telegram might be full of holes but it is a very different thing to Slack. (I use both for different things.) 2. I have my own issues with Telegram (the refusal to introduce sustainable funding, pushing of crypto currencies, possibly also marketing it as more than it is) but except that…

>1. They are vey different. Those who arent aware of the large differences shouldn't comment as if they are they are subject experts. Telegram might be full of holes but it is a very different thing to Slack. (I use both for different things.)

This is just bullshit. Slack does TLS, Telegram does their own weird TLS replacement. In both cases essentially zero conversations are E2EE. As far as privacy and security goes they're essentially the same (although Slack has a better track record of honesty than Telegram!)

>the refusal to introduce sustainable funding

What do you mean? Selling out their customers seems to be rather sustainable, they've been at it since the start and nobody cares to even talk about it. https://habr.com/en/post/206900/

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#778

Post by ryanlol »

johnmorrison wrote: post #775
eitland wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. They are vey different. Those who arent aware of the large differences shouldn't comment as if they are they are subject experts. Telegram might be full of holes but it is a very different thing to Slack. (I use both for different things.) 2. I have my own issues with Telegram (the refusal to introduce sustainable funding, pushing of crypto currencies, possibly also marketing it as more than it is) but except that…

E2E encryption is kind of a fucky thing, some suggest it is fundamentally impossible for central web services and even mobile / desktop apps. Basically, if there is a third party involved in the code besides Alice and Bob, the two can never guarantee E2E encryption. Web part is simple, as there are countless ways you can get malicious code delivered from what you think is the correct, safe, web server. Same concept a…

>E2E encryption is kind of a fucky thing, some suggest it is fundamentally impossible for central web services and even mobile / desktop apps

"some suggest" How about you actually name some competent people who suggest this?

>Basically, if there is a third party involved in the code besides Alice and Bob, the two can never guarantee E2E encryption.

Oh, this is a downright insane, dishonest argument. Perfection is impossible, so we shouldn't even try!

>Anyways, Telegram does seem to have the best encryption of any major service, and it's what we use at my company for almost all internal communications.

Why do you think this? This is such a fundamentally ridiculous claim, I find it absolutely fascinating that someone might arrive at this conclusion.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#779

Post by kostarelo »

arnaudsm wrote: post #737
SeaSeaRider wrote: post #727

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Without massive progress in the next decade, civilization will probably collapse by 2035.” This is deathcult type rhetoric which has no scientific basis whatsoever.

With a more scientific approach, the IPCC[1] models show we could see mass migrations between 200M and 1.5B due to climate change before the end of the century. Not a total collapse, but the collapse of a dozen of countries due to unsustainable heat and drought. [1] https://www.ipcc.ch/apps/njlite/srex/njlite_download.php%3Fi...

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Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#780

Post by littlestymaar »

johnmorrison wrote: post #766
arnaudsm wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a more scientific approach, the IPCC[1] models show we could see mass migrations between 200M and 1.5B due to climate change before the end of the century. Not a total collapse, but the collapse of a dozen of countries due to unsustainable heat and drought. [1] https://www.ipcc.ch/apps/njlite/srex/njlite_download.php%3Fi...

Yes, this is much more accurate of our best predictions. Bjørn Lomborg says[1] by the end of the century, climate change left unchecked will only lower the global GDP by a 2-4 percentage points of what it would have otherwise grown to , which is going to be 300-1000% higher than today. So basically, best case scenario 980% GDP growth, worst case 288% GDP growth. This shows climate change is a problem, but it's too sl…

This is an interesting answer. Somebody says there will be hundred millions of people fleeing their then uninhabitable countries (which will lead to millions of death, just look how many people drown in the Mediterranean see each year now, and how the European population is more xenophobic year after year). And you answer saying GDP will be fine!
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