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Life Improvements Since the 1990s

gwern.net

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Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#131

Post by namdnay »

ghaff wrote: post #98
namdnay wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I could understand this as a blue collar worker, but you’re saying you’d prefer to be a software engineer in 91 than 2021? Come on, of pretty much all the professions were the ones who have reaped the most benefits of the past 30 years

Arguably in 1991, you're getting in on the ground floor but it's a mixed bag. Your new grad salary is probably going to be around $40K or so in the US. And dot-bomb is 10 years in the future. And that list of companies is sort of a mixed bag. Adobe has mostly done pretty well through the years. Sun Microsystems did have a very good decade through the dot-com years but then didn't. Apple was really struggling at that…

I guess if you had hindsight it would be great, just live very frugally, choose the right company and above all buy as much real estate as possible in SV :)

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#132

Post by wolverine876 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #122
minikites wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the typical framing I see, it's usually "government regulations strangling private sector innovation" with the implication that there are no benefits.

I'd say the costs outweigh the benefits, and the benefits often go to the politically connected who can influence the regulations.

> the benefits often go to the politically connected who can influence the regulations

The benefits go to a lot of people, or you could say that voting makes you politically connected. Politicians must balance many interests, including those of the politically connected and of the voting public. You don't want to be the politician who failed to protect your constituents.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#133

Post by nonameiguess »

rthomas6 wrote: post #68

But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?

I can't speak for "people" at broad, but improvements have certainly made a difference for my household. Gwern mentions hearing aids. They haven't just gotten smaller, but more capable. My wife couldn't have conversations with people at all in 1991. She can now. Universal subtitling opens up the full catalog of film and television that she couldn't experience. Spinal interbody fusion existed before 1991, but it wasn't very reliable. Procedure quality has improved rapidly, and that is the only reason my life right now isn't hopelessly miserable or possibly over, as the amount of pain I used to be in made death pretty tempting.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#134

Post by lostlogin »

basseq wrote: post #50
dminvs wrote: post #12

> stoves You'll pry my gas range from my cold, dead hands

My ideal range is 2 induction burners + 4 gas. Induction has a lot of the benefits of gas (e.g., instant temperature control), but gas is still superior for sautéing and continuous temperature control. Whenever I cook on gas, I miss the fast-heating of induction for things like pasta or potatoes. I also don't understand why all induction ranges have to be "high-tech" touchscreen crap. I'd love an induction stove with…

Knobless induction is a travesty - I’d pay a lot more to have knobs.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#135

Post by wolverine876 »

jameshart wrote: post #112
wolverine876 wrote: post #109

> Fresh Guacamole can be easily bought due to pressure pasteurization Where do I find this? I tried this spring and summer but couldn't find guacamole that doesn't spoil within a day or two, especially after being opened, which is too soon to be practical.

Get the single serve packs then.

Thanks, but that's too much waste for my taste.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#136

Post by dougmwne »

rthomas6 wrote: post #68

But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?

I sure am! We have family and friends spread across 2 continents. We can travel freely to spend time near them, take our jobs with us wherever we go, rent a well appointed home with a tap, and when not physically present, have a video chat at a moment's notice and hop into a round of VR golf. In the old world we would have had to choose career or having relationships with our parents and extended families. No more.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#137

Post by globular-toast »

It's good to reflect on improvement as it's so easy to start taking stuff for granted. The two I often think about are smoking and food.

The smoking ban happened in England in 2007, so I didn't have to put up with smoking for that long. But I can definitely remember the time when going out meant your clothes and hair stunk of smoke. It was disgusting. In Germany it is still legal for smaller establishments to have smoking, and smoking is still very popular in Germany, unlike the UK and US. A few of us were looking for a place to have some drinks one night and found it really difficult because going into a smoking place was out of the question.

Growing up in the UK we always had the cheapest food. In the 90s supermarkets started having value brands and we had a lot of "Tesco Value" stuff. Today you just cannot find food at such low quality. If you buy the cheapest today, you are getting what would have been a premium product back then. The bread was like tough foam, the crisps like burnt potato skins, the beans were mostly watery sauce.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#138

Post by [deleted] »

JackPoach wrote: post #127
rthomas6 wrote: post #68

But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?

Should we be measuring at all? Claiming that people have to be more happy over time is a weird proposition for a biologist like me. Not only happiness does not exist (see reification), the idea that it can be 'measured and improved' is silly. Should the next generation of birds be more happy and fulfilled than the previous one? Should the next generation of chimps have stronger lasting relationships? Does it even mak…

[deleted]

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#139

Post by minikites »

rthomas6 wrote: post #68

But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?

Our society is not structured in a way to value or measure this, our society is optimized for wealth generation and extraction. If a human activity can't be bought or sold, we don't value or measure it. For example, stay-at-home parents aren't accounted for in GDP calculations, but outside daycare providers are, so we structure society to encourage parents to work and pay for daycare instead of staying home.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#140

Post by MontyCarloHall »

wolverine876 wrote: post #119
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downside to broadening the talent pool for design/manufacturing is that it means workers now have to be among the best in the world to get business and thus earn a good living. It no longer suffices to be the best in a local region. If each local region needs its own widget factory, then to become a top widgetsmith you only have to compete with the local widgetsmith talent pool. Just as there can be many high sch…

> that it means workers now have to be the best in the world to get business and thus earn a good living. It no longer suffices to be the best in a local region. Yes, though for most jobs there is far more demand than can be met by the best in the world. When someone needs a lawyer or software developer, they are very unlikely to hire the best in the world.

> When someone needs a lawyer or software developer, they are very unlikely to hire the best in the world.

Certainly not the absolute best in the world, but they are still unlikely to hire a thoroughly mediocre worker who in a past world devoid of easy global communication and travel would have only been hired into a high-paying role by virtue of the fact that they were the only available worker with the necessary skills, since sourcing better talent from a global pool was much harder.

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