Someone didn’t think of putting wheels on luggage until relatively recently, in 1987.
Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
51–60 of 583 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#52The basic internal combustion engine. Without it, we'd still be spending half our lives travelling places.
I would say the internal combustion engine has not meaningfully cut people's day to day travel. Where prevalent, many just live further away and travel a long time still. I understand that long distance travel has been revolutionized by engines (steam and internal combustion), but I'm not certain about day to day travel. Many people near me are in a car for multiple hours per day. I would love to see a study on average 'commute' times in the 17-1800s.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#53The idea of Open Source software
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#54The incandescent light bulb. "In 1761, Ebenezer Kinnersley demonstrated heating a wire to incandescence." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb
I still don't think LED (or Halogen) house bulbs are anywhere near as good as the classic incandescent bulb. Most LED bulbs give me a headache. Bad LED bulbs cause 'strobing' in my vision which is even worse.
There are LED bulbs this doesn't apply to. The flicker is so intense, damaging, and nauseating that people have tried to make standards to help get rid of it:
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#55The metric system is pretty good
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#56I'll suggest the thermostat (and throw in the rest of control theory).
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#57Rice cookers. Totally ingenious.
So what am I missing using a pot on the stove?
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#58The greatest invention/discovery of modern times is electricity. It is the second fire and much much more..
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#59Aluminum beverage cans are an engineering marvel: https://youtu.be/hUhisi2FBuw
Fun fact -- 15,000+ aluminum cans are manufactured every second. Every. Second.
Really hope Bill keeps putting out videos, but I understand how life gets and it's not his full time job.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?
#60Condoms