Life Improvements Since the 1990s • Hacker News Board

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#231

Post by BuckRogers » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:39 PM UTC

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #107

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #20

I think he kind of missed the elephant that is modern communication technology has reduced the marginal cost of skilled services enabling pretty much every object designed in an office and manufactured in a factory to benefit from a broader array of engineering and design professionals and methodologies. The average product and service that the average actor in the economy interacts with is designed and optimized to…

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…

Very well put. Excellently stated. That's one of the concepts that many have thought about, because we all feel the effects, but aren't exactly sure how to articulate. I'm going to be thinking about that comment!

It definitely applies to software. It's why trades are a much better career option, local will never not matter in that case. The best 'star high school' welders and electricians are always going to be desirable, as no one is flying in the best in the world for every little job.

Most of us, except the best in the world among us, messed up going into software. The script completely flipped on this since I was a child in the 80s and was dreaming of becoming a programmer as I am now.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#232

Post by Jeff_Brown » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:39 PM UTC

phreeza wrote: post #215

treis wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are somewhat dangerous as the additional airspace allows CO2 to build up. I haven't seen good studies either way, but there's lots of anecdata out there of people reporting symptoms.

That doesn't make sense to me, why would a larger space allow for more CO2 buildup, if there is a connection to the outside?

I don't know if it actually applies to a facemask with unidirectional flow (on at the top, out at the bottom). But the CO2 buildup mechanism is sometimes described as a reason for medical facemasks to be close-fitting. When you exhale into a mask with a big space, and then inhale again, you (very roughly) first inhale everything that was in the mask before inhaling new air.

The extreme example is breathing from a long skinny tube. If the volume of the tube is bigger than that of your lungs, you never inhale new air.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#233

Post by sdevonoes » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:39 PM UTC

dntrkv wrote: post #214

sdevonoes wrote: post #204

There are tons of live improvements from my point of view, but the few downsides that exist today make it worse in overall. The main downside I see is: - big tech companies are becoming so powerful that they will interfere in our daily lives through tech (because tech is everywhere) and there is little we can do about it we want it or not. You cannot escape Google/Microsoft/Facebook/whatever. You just can't (unless y…

> You cannot escape Google/Microsoft/Facebook/whatever. This is such nonsense. There are more alternatives now than ever. Name any service provided by FANAMNGS (or whatever acronym we're using today) and there are many alternatives. Shit we even have viable alternatives to iPhones and Androids. Now if you need AWS level quality of service, you're gonna have to use a service provided by a company that has the means to…

So, I'll give my point of view:

- all the employers I ever had either used Google or Microsoft suite of tools (e.g., gmail, office, etc.)

- my family uses WhatsApp, and they give a damn whether Facebook becomes Big Brother or not

So there you have two aspects of my life (big ones) where I cannot escape the big corporations.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#234

Post by cblconfederate » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

incremental. Most notable changes? fast internet. LED monitors/tvs ... trying to think of something that is not a waste of time ... OS updates and program isntalls are fast, those took a lot of time, electronic payments .. maps/yelp/tripadvisor when you travel ... human interactions are dysfunctional though

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#235

Post by johnwalkr » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #156

Neat list. I have issue with this one in part: > Not Watching crummy VHS tapes, period The rewind button actually worked 100% of the time. I also have an issue with the like for USB. Yes, it’s better than most 90’s tech, but USB-C in its various guises/disguises and it’s horrible relationship with Thunderbolt is a travesty. The cables and ports can’t reliably be distinguished and various things just won’t work, or be…

I travel a lot for work (well, I used to) and changed all my peripherals and devices (even my shaver) to usb-c interface/charging, in some cases by hacking it in myself. It took an annoying amount of research, and Nintendo switch was the worst offender, but eventually I have one charger, and a few cables for ALL of my stuff in a tiny bag. Everything in the bag is worth about $50, and I have the same bag duplicated in my backpack, desk and trip luggage (in this one also international adapters that snap onto the charger).

One caveat is I only used macbooks for years. I was shocked when I built a Ryzen desktop and one usb-c port was standard, without thunderbolt support. So I had to begrudgingly use a to c cables there.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#236

Post by 271828182846 » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

( "Not Rewinding VHS tapes before returning to the library or Blockbuster" ... how about going to some video store was kinda cool and added some social aspect to sitting on your couch alone and watching a movie? how can you even add crap like that on such a list with such a title and not realize how delusional this is?)

there are no material life improvements - only more efficient dopamine triggers. but that's not an improvement because before the 90s - guess what - they had their own triggers.

in that spirit you could add how access to more diverse pornography brought happiness to so many lonely men considering how especially a hundred years ago they were so starved they would get aroused at the sight of women's knees. poor bastards.

guess what, your mega-tittie-porn isn't really an improvement over some picture where a woman lifts her skirt you can see her ankles. it's just a fucking going round in circles what you all confuse with "improvement".

life for many people fucking sucks and most of those "improvements" only come at the expense of removing people further from any kind of meaningful spiritual fullfilment.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#237

Post by njharman » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #107

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #20

I think he kind of missed the elephant that is modern communication technology has reduced the marginal cost of skilled services enabling pretty much every object designed in an office and manufactured in a factory to benefit from a broader array of engineering and design professionals and methodologies. The average product and service that the average actor in the economy interacts with is designed and optimized to…

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…

Yep.

That is why society is (has to) move into post-employment era. It's no longer required or even beneficial for everyone to be employed and/or employed to the extreme degree they are now (~50% of waking hours).

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#238

Post by flerchin » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

BuckRogers wrote: post #231

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…

Very well put. Excellently stated. That's one of the concepts that many have thought about, because we all feel the effects, but aren't exactly sure how to articulate. I'm going to be thinking about that comment! It definitely applies to software. It's why trades are a much better career option, local will never not matter in that case. The best 'star high school' welders and electricians are always going to be desir…

Software dev wages are through the roof as a counterargument.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#239

Post by xyzelement » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #220

xyzelement wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (and I would argue probable) that life will get worse for a long while before improving. Sure. Like I said, you can do this at any point in time and if enough people do that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy so it's better not. Out of curiosity, I took a look at your submission history (which is vast!) and it's 90% doom and gloom across a vast array of topics. I do think living with such a negativity bias is ve…

>I do think living with such a negativity bias is very disempowering - and not to mention not fun. I don't mean to be stupid and blindly optimistic (I manage risk for a living among other things) but like I said, living with certainty that everything will be terrible will ruin your life. I think it only seems overly negative -because- so many people are blindly optimistic and assume things just get better naturally w…

You're talking about human nature. You're seeing the problems only. But humans were "like this" forever.

EG: you're dismal about covid because some people won't get the shot. But in the 80s/90s you'd be dismal because people weren't practicing safe sex despite AIDS, and you'd draw that line to a depressing conclusion. And yet in reality, somehow the world moved towards a much better place despite those things.

Same with COVID - you are obsessing on a small number of people not getting vax and getting depressed, but you are ignoring for example super-fast vax development, global awareness, willingness of governments to move in and out of different disease control regimes, etc. Those are wildly optimistic things, but you don't let those things encourage you, instead you seem to seek out the bad stuff no matter how small and and form your view on that.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#240

Post by marricks » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #123

marricks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life expectancy has already lowered quite a bit from the pandemic we can't put a lid on, and when (if) that settles down cataclysmic climate change will continue its work. Sorry but the future seems quite bleak.

At any point of human history, one could convince themselves that the future is bleak. There had been pandemics and plagues, cold and hot wars, revolutions and dangerous technologies and -isms. And yet in retrospect humanity's trend has been of greater ingenuity, connectives, safety and well-being. Sure, it's possible that THIS is the high point and it'll all go down-hill from here, but that's like being a broken clo…

I think the tragedy of 9/11 is distinctly different from this one. That one was covered non stop by media networks and lead to titanic shifts in the US and to US foreign policy. Comparing emotional states between now and then seems pretty useless. And sure every new crisis can seem bleak but just considering climate change when the field of people studying it have observable depression I imagine things are a bit gloomier than the average person may imagine.

The pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of deaths just in the US hasn't had the same sort of coverage. Nor the fact that we haven't had hurricanes in the Gulf but massive flooding everywhere... my response doesn't come from emotion but from the lack of emotion I see in our leaders to the catastrophes.

We haven't even begin to cut emissions enough to slow down the climate catastrophe and I doubt we ever will. While I imagine the US will start protecting its own supply chains I imagine it will act as it always has, protect the wealthiest and best off and leave middle and lower classes to fight for scraps. Just look at our healthcare system, best in the world for the richest, and one of the worst in the western world for lower classes.