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Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#411

Post by sevilo »

blompa wrote: post #396
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

Menstrual cups are a step up from this! They produce much less waste, are much less messy (almost never leak), and don't need to be changed as often (once every 6 - 12 hours and without the TSS risks that tampons have). It's better to use running water to wash them out, but simply wiping them with tissue paper can work too (albeit a little messily), if water is scarce. A downside that I've read about however is that…

True. On your last point, I think that actually makes pads a more significant invention over tampons and menstrual cups, because it allowed women in very conservative cultures where losing your virginity before marriage is considered taboo, to still able to go about their normal daily actives during periods. Interesting me and friends from elementary school in China were never taught to use tampons, tampons and menstrual cups didn't become a thing until very recently.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#412

Post by Falling3 »

kamakazizuru wrote: post #379
Grustaf wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did you last visit a country where the gdp per capita is a few hundred dollars? Trust me, it’s pretty different.

2nd / 3rd world notions have nothing to do with GDP. There are plenty of countries (a lot of the middle east for example) that would have back when 2nd and 3rd world were relevant notions been considered 3rd world, these currently have some of the highest GDP (PPP Adjusted) per Capita ;)

Yes, but the parent didn't imply that the two necessarily correlate. All you showed was that developing countries can have a high GDP. Are there any countries considered first world that have a low GDP?

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#413

Post by filoleg »

SuoDuanDao wrote: post #387
maerF0x0 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think "you can pretty much build it yourself" applies here.

eh, I'd say it depends on the quality you're going for. Some sheep intestines and string seemed to do it for a lot of people back in the day...

While you make a good point, I wouldn't call condoms made using sheep intestines and a string to be a modern invention, as that dates to at least 1500s.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#414

Post by JustSomeNobody »

gridspy wrote: post #372
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

Equally important is contraception and elective abortion. Being able to control the timing of raising a family allows a much higher degree of freedom and also ensures a safer and more healthy environment to raise a child. I think the most important prerequisite to being a parent is the desire to be a parent.

> ... safer and more healthy ...

Not for that dead child.

> I think the most important prerequisite to being a parent is the desire to be a parent.

I don’t disagree with this. Thankfully adoption exists.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#415

Post by joegahona »

war1025 wrote: post #282
webmobdev wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... but the truth is most clothing doesn't need to be washed nearly so often as people do. Didn't exactly understand you ... I mean, I can't wear any shirt more than two days in a row before it picks up my body odour and starts stinking (India; hot climate - and this is after 2 baths a day too; no deodorant). So if I don't wash and wear it, I am pretty sure it would bother a lot of people. I can wear pants and trou…

As a counterpoint, here in the US Midwest, I currently have three pairs of jeans, two thermal shirts, and two button downs that I rotate through and wash honestly maybe quarterly. Other clothing items I go through more quickly, but I'm planning to start giving my undershirts a couple rotations before washing them as well. Same with socks. The main thing I've noticed is that natural fabrics don't pick up smells nearly…

Quarterly washing of clothes is way too seldom for shirts. Jeans? I guess, if you never spill anything on them, etc. But things like shirts, socks, and underwear require washing essentially every time you wear them.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#416

Post by joegahona »

war1025 wrote: post #278
godot wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you spend close to an hour to wash dishes every morning, it's actually a good proof of how much time it could save you. Being able to use that hour productively with other means while you do it (e.g. listening to the news or podcasts in your case) is somewhat a separate topic. Loading and unloading the dishwasher for the same amount of dishes every day will probably take less than 30 minutes. I would estim…

> you could have a savings of 30 minutes every day Maybe I'm unique in this (I don't think I am), but if anything the curse of modern life is that we're absolutely awash in free time. What would I do with an extra 30 minutes? Probably check Hacker News or Facebook more than I already do. The actual washing of the dishes really doesn't take that long. Most of it is gathering everything up, rescuing the sink from the d…

There are lots of things you could do with 30 minutes. Meditate, a brisk walk, prayer, learn a new language, etc. I guess washing dishes is a form of meditation in the same way showering or shaving is, but man, I can’t imagine 30 hours of hand-washing dishes per month. That’s almost a week’s worth of a full-time job.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#417

Post by dredmorbius »

robbrown451 wrote: post #347
new2628 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would the world be better or worse off without the population boom that resulted from the invention?

Better to whom? How do you define "better" if not relative to some entity able to appreciate the difference between good and bad?

Looking at the long-term consequences might be illuminating, though that presupposes agreement on what that long-term consequence is.

If it is a high, stable, prosperous, and happy population, sustainable over the long term, arguably good.

If you start deviating from these criteria, things don't look so good.

H-B has given us "large. Is that population stable? Is it prosperous (and if so or if not, where and why)? Is it happy? And is it sustainable over the long term? If not, what does the end-stage look like, and how does it compare to the status quo ante*, prior to H-B?

As with tackling complex projects, addressing difficult questions sometimes becomes more tractable when decomposed into sub-problems and components.

As with mathematical proofs, sometimes presuming one result, then walking that to its inevitable conclusions, leads to a proof by contradiction.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#418

Post by jvanderbot »

kragen wrote: post #357
jvanderbot wrote: post #247

Hand washing. Modern disease control and prevention is borderline magic. Hand-washing is clearly the most important lifesaving and disease preventing invention in modern times. Materially ... Well, "yourself" precludes anything computerized, unless you mean "program". It also precludes a huge range of materials science advances. Technically, you can make steel and concrete yourself with enough real-world minecrafting…

This book should be called The Misinformation. It omits crucial safety information and other details about many of the processes it mentions, and the author doesn't maintain a public list of known errata; it's entertainment, not education. Three better alternatives: the Primitive Technology channel on YouTube, the Boy Scouts Handbook, and Wikipedia, which you can download as .zim files for offline reference. Other re…

Very good references! Thank you!

I do think the author tried to relay concepts and hints, rather than recipes. Given the compactness, a group of people starting largely from scratch and taking the book on faith could figure out a lot of stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#419

Post by dredmorbius »

divbzero wrote: post #303

The modern flush toilet. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet Technically invented in the 1500s but not widely produced until the 1800s.

And of limited use without something to hook it up to.

The toilet itself is an input (or depending on your perspective, output) device. Without the additional process it's connected to, it doesn't buy you much.

London's first flush toilets were connected to existing cesspits, in the late 19th century. Connection to the (storm-water-handling) sewers was an unauthorised hack by plumbers of the day. Tim Harford has covered this in his podcast on major inventions.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#420

Post by musicale »

puranjay wrote: post #184

The humble ball point pen. People forget how cumbersome and/or expensive it was to write before cheap ball point pens became a thing. You had to use fountain pens. The cheap ones leaked and were an absolute mess to carry around. The ones that didn't leak were expensive. I can now buy more pens for $100 than I'll ever use in years and just stash them everywhere I want

When I discovered fountain pens and small-nib felt tip calligraphy pens I switched to them for all correspondence and most note taking; I only use ball point pens when I have to. Even round/bullet point felt tip pens are better.

I would love to see felt tip calligraphy pens developed with more ink and a longer life.

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