Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#831

Post by copperwater69 » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:14 AM UTC

TrackerFF wrote: post #319

It IS being worked on, but things move quite slow - and there doesn't seem to have been much progress for decades, but: Cure for hair-loss. Some might say it's just vanity, but if someone could come up with a cure, and sell it affordably, that would be a multi-billion, maybe even trillion dollar industry. Going from quite balding (NW4-NW7 in balding terminology) to a full head of hair makes most guys look a solid 10-…

Does anyone know why we can't just implant nylon hair follicles with some biologically compatible glue/plugs?

Edit: Just searched up synthetic hair implants

The FDA banned the synthetic fibers in the US in 1983. The ban resulted because widespread use in the 1970s led to numerous complications including recurrent infections, rejection, contact dermatitis, granulomatous hypersensitivity reactions and cyst formation. Not to mention frequent loss of fibers from breakage.

The synthetic fibers continue to be manufactured in Europe where they are still in use.

Check out this website with an unfortunate name for more info https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/artificial-hair-implants/

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#832

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:26 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #722

jbay808 wrote: post #414

Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Ever been to a book store in Japan? Practically every book is the same size. As a result, bookshelves also are designed to be the right size to optimally fit books. This allows people to fit more books in small homes. It makes books easier to transport in book-sized boxes and book-sized bags too. You can get perfectly-fitting reusable cloth covers to protect…

Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Marketing people don't like that. They want a unique look. Many US state laws requiring some standardization of sizes and fill have been repealed over the last two decades.

Hence my regular ranting about the outsized negative effects marketing has on society. We really should stop accepting "but think of marketing!" as a valid reason to eschew interoperability and standardization. Marketing is ultimately zero-sum, it'll flourish in a constrained playground just as much as it does in an unconstrained one.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#833

Post by newman555 » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:28 AM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #371

newman555 wrote: post #137

Fusion energy and regenerative agriculture. Maybe I’m naive, but I see those 2 being unbelievable transformative for the world, significantly improving quality of life and preventing all those really bad climate change scenarios that seem almost inevitable at this point.

Tokamak Energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYnbYsp3i8&t=2s https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk

I’ve heard and read about all these initiatives that you and few others mentioned in your replies. However, (as per original question) I’m surprised we’re not investing much more resources into these. Again, super naive me - we put a lot of money and resources into finding the vaccine for covid and it quickly paid out, I think if we did the same for fusion energy we would also see big leaps in smaller period of time.

Or is fusion energy really not just a matter of how much cash we throw at the problem? I don’t buy that.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#834

Post by freetonik » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:30 AM UTC

ciconia wrote: post #659

Electric cars, but without the bullshit: no giant screens, no autopilot, just a reliable, lightweight box on wheels that can do 500km on a charge. Or: really efficient petrol/diesel cars that weigh 600kg and consume 2l/100km (that's about 120MPG).

KIA Niro EV is close. Very conservative, physical buttons for pretty much everything (thank god), modest screen, seems very reliable. Not lightweight though.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#835

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:37 AM UTC

lock-free wrote: post #331

gangstertim wrote: post #317

Battery-operated household items. I have a cordless dewalt drill that I can use all day on my jobsite, but every single appliance in my kitchen needs a cord. Hand mixer? Immersion blender? Regular blender? Stand mixer? Everything has a cord. Why isn't there a kitchen battery system yet? Similarly: I'd love to have a little reading sconce on my wall next to my bed, but running a circuit through the existing walls with…

I'd guess because the market isn't really there when wire is extremely cheap and the building codes require more outlets than most people need. The wire for your sconce has already been run through the wall, it's at an outlet. Managing cables is not that hard. Power tools are a bit different because they need to fit into any given tight space about once, and can't rely on wall power being nearby. Your sconce and kitc…

> and the building codes require more outlets than most people need

Does it, though? Never in my life I've seen a house anywhere in the countries I've been to, that would have a sufficient number of outlets. Myself I think corded devices are fine, but houses come with way too few outlets.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#836

Post by ben_w » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:40 AM UTC

marcell wrote: post #796

pochekailov wrote: post #717

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really agree with you. I feel the extension of young and healthy life (ideally to infinity) is a number one priority. Surprisingly, people almost always strongly oppose when I just start expressing my views. I never understood this. Wouldn't it be nice to see Mars colonized and terraformed? Wouldn't it be great to see the completion of a Dyson swarm and using 100 % of the Sun energy for some ultra-mega-project we c…

I don’t think extending life to infinity is a good idea. Why would anyone want to live forever? What’s the point?

Even if we cure all illnesses and find a way to halt ageing at 25, and we got rid of car accidents (the biggest accidental killer) and suicide (the biggest deliberate killer), the remaining types of accident and homicide would probably still give humans a mean lifespan in the order of a few thousand years — I doubt I’d be bored of life after a mere few thousand years.

Hundreds of thousands of years would be utterly unpredictable given how big the scale change is (fun though the idea of star-lifting is), but a few thousand years is definitely still in the range of learning to master skills that I admire others demonstrating.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#837

Post by ben_w » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:52 AM UTC

copperwater69 wrote: post #831

TrackerFF wrote: post #319

It IS being worked on, but things move quite slow - and there doesn't seem to have been much progress for decades, but: Cure for hair-loss. Some might say it's just vanity, but if someone could come up with a cure, and sell it affordably, that would be a multi-billion, maybe even trillion dollar industry. Going from quite balding (NW4-NW7 in balding terminology) to a full head of hair makes most guys look a solid 10-…

Does anyone know why we can't just implant nylon hair follicles with some biologically compatible glue/plugs? Edit: Just searched up synthetic hair implants The FDA banned the synthetic fibers in the US in 1983. The ban resulted because widespread use in the 1970s led to numerous complications including recurrent infections, rejection, contact dermatitis, granulomatous hypersensitivity reactions and cyst formation. N…

That sounds like a wig, only harder to wash, and with added pain if/when it gets stuck in something, and a bigger fire hazard than either a wig or natural hair.

I’m still a bit surprised nobody is trying to tissue-culture skin with follicles that don’t go bald in the same way. Artists have already done the tissue culture part with a different goal in mind, and the tech in this area has been developing rapidly: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victimless_Leather

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#838

Post by dayvid » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:53 AM UTC

baron816 wrote: post #243

In-person social organizations. Social isolation is probably the biggest cause of unhappiness in advanced countries. Having a strong social network has lots of advantages including providing better romantic and career opportunities, as well as improving physical and psychological health. Humans have a long history of dishing out lots of money to be parts of strong communities too--country clubs and fraternities have…

Meetup’s been doing a good job at this for some time. I’ve made friends and I’ve known people who have made lifelong friends from it.

I think it’s hard to build a community around people who just want one, and it’s more effective if it’s based around a starting ground of an interest and better yet shared values.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#839

Post by toper-centage » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 12:21 PM UTC

peterburkimsher wrote: post #823

ThePhysicist wrote: post #821

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these points are just a matter of personal preference. I like Apple laptops but they're not great in terms of repairability, extensibility, modularity and openness. There are some non-Apple laptops with much better displays BTW, even Lenovo ships 500 nit displays and wide-color gamut ones with some their laptops nowadays. Dell and other manufacturers ship OLED display with some of their gaming laptops, which…

Ironically, I actually think old Apple laptops are better to repair, because of Rossmann. What other brand has leaked schematics and boardviews? Replacement batteries, iFixit guides, and skilled independent technicians keeping the A1398 and A1466 going as long as possible? I doubt Apple will return to their glory days of making those laptops new, but I feel like the repairability of 2014 Macs is still better than man…

Most PC brands don't use custom chips and motherboards and etc. The build might be custom, but most parts are off the shelf. So each separate part is more likely to have some schematic out there of to follow similar design standards to other models.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#840

Post by michaelt » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 12:23 PM UTC

gfxgirl wrote: post #469

jbay808 wrote: post #414

Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Ever been to a book store in Japan? Practically every book is the same size. As a result, bookshelves also are designed to be the right size to optimally fit books. This allows people to fit more books in small homes. It makes books easier to transport in book-sized boxes and book-sized bags too. You can get perfectly-fitting reusable cloth covers to protect…

I don't think Japan is any different than the USA here. If you go look at paperback novels in the USA they are 95% all the same width and height, only the thickness changes. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stack-of-science-fiction-p... Conversely there are plenty of randomly sized books at a Japanese bookstore. I can go walk to some today and take pictures if you don't believe me. It's possible the USA is 50% stand…

I think Japanese bookstores look very organised partly because they stock manga - where you will routinely get ten-volume series of books (with far fewer words per page than a novel would have, of course)

So while every western bookshop has that shelf full of Lonely Planet travel guides that looks really organised, in Japan you can photograph an entire aisle of books that looks just as regimented.