Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

newsletter.butwhatfor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 130 posts

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#51

Post by 123pie123 »

I've been on a few projects where there has been no obvious way forward. So to find the least worst option, I've started off by desiging a really bad design (along with polished diagrams and RAIDS etc..)

This generally invokes good/ heated discussion on how not to do things - which always seems to get poeple talking - as opposed to asking people what they think is the best way forward. People are better at telling you how thngs can't work than saying how to make things work

Keep track of all the choices and design decisions and do this iteratively and you have you least worse option.

I think I've accidently followed the TRIZ method

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#52

Post by xibalba »

g_sch wrote: post #12

It took a second for me to make this connection, but the Charlie Munger in this article is the same Charlie Munger who designed that windowless dorm at UCSB that made the news a few days back. [0] I wonder if he applied the same principles to designing that building. [0] https://www.independent.com/2021/10/28/architect-resigns-in-...

It's amazingly "on brand" that HN commenters upon the Munger quote at the top of this article.

Being a fellow HN'er, I'll follow suit:

The most obvious response to Munger's critics is, "Then don't live there." The U.S. is blessed with a huge number of universities, meaning lot's of choice. Particularly for those individuals with the type of accomplishments that would get them into UCSB. (It's not Stanford, but it is very selective)

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#53

Post by queuebert »

hprotagonist wrote: post #43
queuebert wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this just the scientific method? Disproving a hypothesis is much easier than proving one.

Arguably you can only refute hypotheses, if you're of the empiricist mindset about testability, so in a sense that's even _more_ stringent. TRIZ seems to admit of situations where basically, you don't know enough about what your hypothesis ought to be that 'the scientific method' won't get you far enough, so you must proceed by walling off as much of your search space as possible as fast as possible by prioritizing t…

Doesn't this implicitly assume that the negatives are easier to enumerate than the positives? What is the test for this? Gut feeling?

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#54

Post by jquery »

intpx wrote: post #48
jquery wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Except it looks like he was thinking “how can I make student housing intolerable” and stopped there, instead of inverting it.

I traded the walk in closet for my bed and desk space in my freshman quad. not having windows was a small price to pay for not having to share the air with 3 other freakin weirdos.One of them could only sleep with a desk lamp on, which didnt bother one of the others who was 100% nocturnal and went into an absolute rage if you woke him up before about 6pm. The third pretty much lived in another room

I sympathize. I’d rather live in a closet myself than share a room with someone else. I’m someone who finds that old Hong Kong city monstrosity fascinating and would probably enjoy living in it, in a cyberpunk way. But I wouldn’t design a dorm around my own peculiar proclivities. Nor am I an architect, and I’ll defer to the experts on this.

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#55

Post by lelandfe »

xyzelement wrote: post #40
g_sch wrote: post #12

It took a second for me to make this connection, but the Charlie Munger in this article is the same Charlie Munger who designed that windowless dorm at UCSB that made the news a few days back. [0] I wonder if he applied the same principles to designing that building. [0] https://www.independent.com/2021/10/28/architect-resigns-in-...

From what I see in responses to you, Munger has designed other well-received dorms in the past so that gives him credibility on this topic. It doesn't mean he's right but it's a good chance his thinking is more nuanced than those shitting on it - especially coupled with the current article that describes how he thinks. This is total conjecture but I can imagine him doing something like this: Question: how do you make…

> his thinking is more nuanced than those shitting on it

To be fair, an architect with 15 years on the UCSB Review Committee resigned over this... so it's not just outsiders and the media who are bagging on the design.

https://www.independent.com/2021/10/28/architect-resigns-in-...

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#56

Post by PeterisP »

queuebert wrote: post #53
hprotagonist wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably you can only refute hypotheses, if you're of the empiricist mindset about testability, so in a sense that's even _more_ stringent. TRIZ seems to admit of situations where basically, you don't know enough about what your hypothesis ought to be that 'the scientific method' won't get you far enough, so you must proceed by walling off as much of your search space as possible as fast as possible by prioritizing t…

Doesn't this implicitly assume that the negatives are easier to enumerate than the positives? What is the test for this? Gut feeling?

If you are able to find a positive solution, you have solved your problem already.

If you're looking for special problem solving techniques, then this implies that for your particular case you are not capable of "enumerating positives" for this problem.

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#57

Post by CPLX »

xibalba wrote: post #52
g_sch wrote: post #12

It took a second for me to make this connection, but the Charlie Munger in this article is the same Charlie Munger who designed that windowless dorm at UCSB that made the news a few days back. [0] I wonder if he applied the same principles to designing that building. [0] https://www.independent.com/2021/10/28/architect-resigns-in-...

It's amazingly "on brand" that HN commenters upon the Munger quote at the top of this article. Being a fellow HN'er, I'll follow suit: The most obvious response to Munger's critics is, "Then don't live there." The U.S. is blessed with a huge number of universities, meaning lot's of choice. Particularly for those individuals with the type of accomplishments that would get them into UCSB. (It's not Stanford, but it is…

And the most obvious response to billionaires who think their money buys them the right to run public institutions is "go fuck yourself".

The University of California system is owned by, and created for the benefit of, the people of California. Decisions about how it should be run and what the dorms should look like should be made by democratic institutions and accountable to the public through regular elections.

Billionaires are blessed with a huge number of leisure time activities and ways to feed their own outsized egos, meaning lots of choice. Particularly for those individuals with the type of money that would allow them to donate entire large buildings.

Perhaps he could engage in those activities, and limit his interaction with public institutions to paying his fair share of taxes, and casting the single vote to which he is entitled.

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#58

Post by busterarm »

mitchdoogle wrote: post #32
hindsightbias wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we’re going to need people to populate austere environments lile Mars, we’re going to need people used to living without windows. Works for the Navy.

Mars? That's your best argument? We're on Earth, so let's design for Earth.

Not Mars. "like Mars". The conversation is really about austere environments.

Given current trends, Earth is likely to be full of austere living conditions in the future. Do you want to learn how to survive now or have to scramble to figure it out when it happens?

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#59

Post by thehappypm »

sam0x17 wrote: post #50
xyzelement wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I see in responses to you, Munger has designed other well-received dorms in the past so that gives him credibility on this topic. It doesn't mean he's right but it's a good chance his thinking is more nuanced than those shitting on it - especially coupled with the current article that describes how he thinks. This is total conjecture but I can imagine him doing something like this: Question: how do you make…

Creating a dorm that is far from classes and amenities actual encourages social interaction, or it did for my dorm.

How far? I spent a semester at Rutgers and many students need to take busses many miles to get to class. It feels like like a campus community than just about any other school I’ve been on as a result.

Re: Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots (2020)

#60

Post by rtkwe »

milesskorpen wrote: post #24
adewinter wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The building has not yet been built.

There is a smaller version of it at UMich: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2015/07/heres_your_firs...

Smaller with fewer people sharing a common space and better amenities. The differences between the two designs are vast. Also a lot of people complain about the lack of windows in the rooms but give it a positive review because of amenities. I've talked more about the differences in other comments I won't rehash.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29163183

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29163362

Post reply on HN