toilet paper, maybe ?...
Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
31–40 of 583 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#32Rice cookers. Totally ingenious.
Not sure this counts as "simple".
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#33Standardized shipping containers massively decreased the cost of global commerce which is perhaps the most important force in the modern world.
Nice one, but we could get into a debate on whether a convention counts as an invention.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#34The sanitation system.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#35The basic internal combustion engine. Without it, we'd still be spending half our lives travelling places.
Not saying it didn't have an impact, but I'm nitpicking about the impact it had on how we spend our time: "Marchetti's constant is the average time spent by a person for commuting each day, which is approximately one hour. [...] Ever since Neolithic times, people have kept the average time spent per day for travel the same, even though the distance may increase due to the advancements in the means of transportation."
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#36Plastic. We're now drowning in a new problem, but plastic and its impact on sanitation (particularly medical sanitation, like disposable needles, which then supports vaccinations) has dramatically improved life quality and length.
Losing a child to disease before the age of five is no longer a universal human experience, portrayed in the Robert Frost poem below.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#37Maybe not "most important", but a few dollars worth of post-it notes can turn any wall into a "business application" that can potentially cost thousands to turn into code.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#38Bicycles are pretty amazing, although there's no way you could 'build one yourself'.
Bicycles may seem simple but took many decades to get it right. Your comment also reminded me of this gallery of drawings from people attempting to create a bicycle from memory which is pretty funny https://twistedsifter.com/2016/04/artist-asks-people-to-draw...
The most astounding thing about bicycles is that we did actually get it right. looking at the first ~100 years of iteration, you'd kind of assume that it was one of those things that would just keep evolving forever. But then they found the classic diamond frame design, and bikes have been fundamentally the same since then.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#39Antibiotics?
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#40Standardized shipping containers massively decreased the cost of global commerce which is perhaps the most important force in the modern world.
Nice one, but we could get into a debate on whether a convention counts as an invention.
Ya, I dunno if it counts either. Just seemed like an interesting answer so I threw it out there.