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Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
901–910 of 947 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#902Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Have you even looked out the window, lately?
Not all areas experience extreme weather. Where I live, there's basically no extreme weather ever.
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#903Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why can't we spend less than that to avoid the problem We can, and we are. That's why I do what I do. You're absolutely right, it is much cheaper to avert climate change than deal with the consequences. It's also necessary to transition to sustainable energy eventually because we will run out of fossil fuels regardless of what happens with the climate. The solutions to climate change are being worked on right now b…
We aren't, and we won't. Coal and oil usage are still increasing, and the US is increasing its subsidy for them. Russia, China, and India are still building new coal-fired power plants. Fascist representation in governments is increasing worldwide. Action is falling far short of what would be needed to cap temperature rise, and there is no motion toward greater enforcement. Any developments in fission could only have…
> Any developments in fission could only have substantial effect decades after events will overtake them.
We only need 2 decades to fix the energy part of emissions, and the IPCC has given us 3.
> and there is no motion toward greater enforcement.
Enforcement isn't needed to get to net zero emissions. It's profitable long term to swap to clean energy and electrified vehicles and appliances, they're more efficient. Also fossil fuel abundance will eventually drop to the point where prices rise.
Free markets will solve our emissions problem, I'm not sure why you are worried about enforcement or the type of governments when it comes to this.
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#904Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on what you mean by this? How will water cause a war? Do you mean freshwater access?
Global warming will melt ice caps and flood the world. Or global warming will evaporate water and dry the world. One thing is sure. Global warming, water and world war three. /s
> flood the world
No, there isn't nearly that much water.
> will evaporate water and dry the world
How would this work? Either the water is on the ground or it is in the air, neither case is a dry world. Where would all the water go to "dry the world"?
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#905Earlier quoted context omitted.
Companies that change the physical world require a lot higher specialist:founder ratio. There is enough capital and ambitious managerial types around, what we really have a shortage of is specialists in new technical areas.
How does a former software engineer get into nuclear tech? What specific skills and positions would be required?
Well, there are engineers needed to develop new CAD / sim software to better model liquid nuclear fuels. That basically would require you to have a very good understanding of software engineering + fluid mechanics, nuclear physics, thermodynamics and chemistry
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#906Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh indeed! Thanks for the precision, well worth noting. The particular arrangement of The Fourth Turning is adamantly specific though (and quite famous in sociological circles, iirc it's where our modern concepts of "millenials" or "gen X" etc. come from); it's hard to mistake it for anything else. I don't doubt for one second that Greene knows it, or that he'd expect a sophisticated audience (such as Googlers) to kn…
Thanks I didn't realise the naming originated with them. wrt pseudo science the whole social cycles subject is interesting and sometimes plausible enough to read about even if you take it with a large pinch of salt.
Yes, social cycles are definitely a thing empirically, historically. The learning curve over humanity's civilization is tedious, hard, but we're making progress overall. We have reached a situation where some actors, being super-massive, have enough data and tools to effectively move social behavior —a long movement from 'States' (whatever the name) since immemorial centuries up to big tech in the 21st.
I think the future of social sciences is there, currently tightly secured intellectual property and datasets in the beating core of giant tech. Those who command enough of that elusive 'power' are now capable of shaping humanity to an unprecedented degree.
Like any tool, neither good nor bad but what we make of it...
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#907Earlier quoted context omitted.
The key to these types of solutions is always to follow the 80/20 rule. For example, it’s foolish to say and attempt “I will automate all of your data entry people” because there will always be weird idiosyncrasies that are better fit for humans. You will dash yourself against the rocks trying to get a “100% complete” solution. Instead, create software that allows 1 person to do the job of 5. You create massive busin…
I’m building a tool to speed up data entry. It highlights OCR‘d words with low confidence for human review. It uses templates for capturing structured data and a fast interface for capturing unstructured data. It grew out of consulting projects and is almost ready for beta testing if anyone is interested in playing with it and giving me some feedback - my email is in my profile :)
Email sent.
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#908Earlier quoted context omitted.
> centralize control of entire industries for no reason other than - they got to it first. But those big companies didn’t get there first. History is littered with companies that were too big to beat. The secret is obvious but difficult: find a better way and people that agree it’s a better way. Look at Cirrus Aircraft for a relatively recent example — they tackled an ultra regulated, expensive business and are now t…
Exactly, we need a Facebook that actually encourages healthy human interaction and is adverse to viral pollution, dopamine addiction and rage triggers. If it's genuinely useful it will win out.
That is exactly my view too. You win by being better than whatever else exists at the time.
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#909Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's the best way to make money, but this may be the most important topic for our near future as a species . Emphasis: not just civilization(s) but species as a whole, as in rewiring perception, brain functions, social life, freedom of thought. Here's my conundrum: we could design a transparent and 100% user-controlled communication network — basically some open-sourced Twitter / Facebook / Whatsapp / I…
> How do we get 2.5 billion people to move when none has moved already — chicken-and-the-egg problem of “but all my friends...” By migrating 'groups' over to the new platform, rather than targeting individuals to migrate. Make it easier for your most popular groups or communities on the existing platform to move over to the new network (ex. by sharing a join link in the existing group * ) effectively bringing over th…
Great idea, groups: yes, totally. Easier said than done but that's definitely a great boulevard.
You touch a critical point too. I've pondered the matter of "how to make the other side(s) do what you want?" in many fields, from sales to politics passing by business or education. Here's my observation: the ideal way to win is when the other side wins as well.
You have to make it so there's something in it for them and something in it for you; and doing this immensely reduces the friction of the whole transition —and said friction is always paid, either by money we don't have or that they will spend to block us, or by users in UX and frustration; both risk the whole success.
It's exactly the same for the "99% versus 1%" situations: no common ground means no solution, but you have to think out of the box. Example for economics: less inequalities in a country tend to produce longer life expectancy even for the highest 1% — because better nurses, better emergency workers, better infrastructures e.g. roads, better construction for hospital norms, etc. Same thing with education for their children, all the services we share at a 'collective enough' level. That's an example of a win-win argument that should be used by those in the 99%, and are definitely put forward by advocates within the 1%.
I think you don't win against Facebook, or Google or Amazon and Apple. You win by incentivizing them to join the movement, because we all together work to make overall better for everyone. We massively grow the pie, so that even less shares means more of what each party wants —profit for some, freedom for others, security for all, etc.
It's the only sustainable way to 'win' imho, free of retaliation fears or cyclic trends, you just 'clean' the problem once and for all with a self-sustainable solution. You win survival not against pre-existing tensions but with co-dependency / harmony, even parasitism, finding the ways to co-exist and both thrive.
Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?
#910Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see idealists making all the mistakes that led to the monetary system we have now. They may end up in a different place, but they'll make lots of mistakes and it'll blow up in their faces many times before they're done.
Can you point out some of these mistakes? Also, traditional finance has had it's share of blowing up in their faces. The difference with DeFi is that economies are being being build on an economic model rather than an economic model being built on an economy.
Sure - multiple robberies of exchanges. Every-increasing transaction times. Ponzi-style valuations. Pretty much everything bitcoin.