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Life Improvements Since the 1990s

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Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#461

Post by laserlight »

JackPoach wrote: post #459
laserlight wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll always have to go 'happiness as defined ...' How is one meter defined? You claim that happiness cannot be measured, yet in the next sentence you talk about measuring it by self reporting. One unreliable way of measuring doesn't equal to “cannot be measured”.

My argument is as follows - happiness can not AND should not be measured. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't define happiness as you want it and pursue it on an individual level. For instance - walking in the park makes you 'happy' (as self reported feeling). Yoga makes you happy. Meditation makes you happy. Great - go for it. BUT it's pointless to even attempt to measure 'group happiness' and try to increase it.…

Thanks for the pointer. It seems that there is no such thing as a meter except the “meter as defined”. And when people discovered that measuring length is not as reliable as they wanted, they didn't say it “can not AND should not be measured”. Instead, they found better ways of measuring it.

If happiness is not as well defined or well-behaved as we would like it to be, perhaps we can make it better rather than dismissing the problem.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#462

Post by globular-toast »

kristofferR wrote: post #206
globular-toast wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whenever I cook on gas, I miss the fast-heating of induction for things like pasta or potatoes. In the UK, every kitchen has a fast-boil kettle (and has done for decades now) and those still boil water faster than an induction hob.

US kettles are much slower than UK kettles though, due to the voltage difference in the power outlets.

I think it's current rather than voltage, but I believe I the US the power is two phase AC with 240V usually available for kitchen appliances etc. I wonder why they don't make that available for kettles? It's really convenient and very efficient.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#463

Post by alberto-m »

The list cannot obviously contain everything, yet I think the switch from CRTs to LCD monitors should have been mentioned.

My eyes used to itch when I watched a CRT for more than a couple of hours, if better technologies didn't become available I would have probably not chosen a career in IT.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#464

Post by IshKebab »

coldtea wrote: post #456
IshKebab wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really surprising lots of them are fairly minor given that it is meant to be an exhaustive list, not a list of only significant changes.

Yes, but even the significant changes among them are mostly inconsequential when one compares with what we got e.g. between 1880 and 1960 (electricity and running water at most homes, cinema, radio and television, nuclear energy and weapons, x-rays, lasers, i.p. engines, cars, airplanes, DNA, satellites, rockets, digital computers, and tons more...)

Uhm yeah you're comparing an 80 year period with two world wars and the development of modern physics and engineering with a 25 year period of stability.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#465

Post by coldtea »

IshKebab wrote: post #464
coldtea wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but even the significant changes among them are mostly inconsequential when one compares with what we got e.g. between 1880 and 1960 (electricity and running water at most homes, cinema, radio and television, nuclear energy and weapons, x-rays, lasers, i.p. engines, cars, airplanes, DNA, satellites, rockets, digital computers, and tons more...)

Uhm yeah you're comparing an 80 year period with two world wars and the development of modern physics and engineering with a 25 year period of stability.

>Uhm yeah you're comparing an 80 year period with two world wars and the development of modern physics and engineering with a 25 year period of stability.

Uhm,

(1) I measured up to 1960. Since then it's a 61 year period, not a 25 year one.

(2) That period having "two world war" versus our "stability" makes my point even more. One would expect a period without 2 world wars bothering it, and with stability to enjoy, to produce more.

(3) "and the development of modern physics and engineering" that's my point exactly. That we enjoyed the low hanging fruit of that development and now we've stagnated and get much less impressive feats.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#466

Post by LightG »

dang wrote: post #354
LightG wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the phrase "get f*cked you absolute bivalve, no wonder your girlfriend dumped you" have any resonance at all with you? (Edited for spelling)

If you post flamewar comments again we will ban you. We've had to warn you before. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Understood. I apologise though the aggrecious level was off the scale.

I thought it was quite a poetic and appropriate response at the time rather than flamewar'ish, but you're right.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#467

Post by rory »

crymer11 wrote: post #5
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #4

With the exception of a few (very important) services (e.g. college tuition, healthcare, childcare), increases in income have actually outpaced inflation for most other goods and services over the last 20 years [0]. This is something I almost never see discussed; almost everyone seems to believe that real incomes have totally stagnated. That said, given current inflationary trends, it will be interesting to see if th…

Average hourly wages have, but what about the median?

Sidenote-- is average === mean the standard lexicon now?

When I was in grade school we learned that average was a generic term for mean, median, or mode. So when I see average conflated with median in discussion (as it often is), I assume it's intentional. But others seem to interpret it as a synonym of mean.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#468

Post by inglor_cz »

tootie wrote: post #379
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…

I think he missed a lot bigger elephants. Things like the massive reduction in global poverty levels or eradication of polio. The global decrease in crime. We reversed ozone depletion and massively decreased the mortality rate for HIV. This post is more like a list of cool products we have now when we have monumental human development achievements no one is talking about.

Polio is not eradicated and with Taliban taking over Afghanistan, likely won't be anytime soon.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#469

Post by nwah1 »

elproxy wrote: post #457
nwah1 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He referenced the Environmental Kuznets Curve. This provides a mechanistic understanding of what is happening. It isn't that modern industrial civilization requires a certain amount of pollution per unit of production which can be offloaded. Rather, pollution is largely something that occurs in the production process in locations where desperation for production is so high that they are not willing to put in any pers…

The Environmental Kuznets Curve is problematic though, see for instance: https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2020/10/9/response-to-mcafe...

Massive amounts of resource extraction still occurs in places like the US, Canada, and Australia. The US is the world's largest oil producer now. Canada and the US have huge logging operations, and are huge agricultural exporters. Australia has enormous mining operations. And indeed all three still use and extract coal, and most people rely on internal combustion engines for transportation.

Despite all of this, air quality is relatively high. Water quality is relatively high. Ecological preservation efforts have restored all sorts of habitats and saved species from extinction.

Gina Rinehart has become a billionaire in Australia by owning a massive coal mining operation. A lot of the coal is burned locally, but most is exported to Asia. Asia isn't forced to buy Australian coal. Asian countries could instead put a tax on dirty energy, and encourage cleaner energy. But some combination of reasons keeps that low in their list of priorities.

And even if they unfortunately wish to continue to burn coal, it would be possible to force the use of air scrubbers and purchasing purer grades of coal. But that isn't pursued for the same reasons.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#470

Post by BuckRogers »

flerchin wrote: post #382
BuckRogers wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I see. As the OP I can say that my wages aren't through the roof, and I don't think they ever will be. I'm a developer and under 100K. I'm not sure anyone I know in this industry has a "through the roof" salary. I don't know anyone at Google. Given how hard I work for the money I do make, I'm expecting to unionize or go solo with my own thing, before my salary somehow goes through the roof. Either of thos…

I dunno. I've never worked a FAANG, but wage increases have been great for every new job. Maybe my US perspective is showing? Maybe move to a hotter market?

I'm in the US, but I won't be moving to a hotter market during the pandemic for sure. If your personal wages are "through the roof", good job, as I'm always for general upward pressure on wages. But the original statement was that dev wages were through the roof. Moving to get them is a new, originally unspecified condition that the statistics don't bear out.

To revise your original statement, "dev wages can be through the roof, if you live in one of a few hot markets that exist globally at least". To me that's like saying, "need more money? Just become the CEO". :)

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