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Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

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Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#321

Post by sol_invictus »

cambaceres wrote: post #169
sol_invictus wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because some people (as in, a vast majority of the global population) live their lives in a low-income bracket and one could consider it a very unpleasant thought to live your entire life sharing bathrooms with strangers.

The grandfathers point was that shared bathrooms would decrease costs of building new apartments, which is good for poor people with less income. Needing to share a bathroom with someone is no problem compared to not having a place to stay.

The question here is - is the cost difference of a shared bathroom versus a private bathroom the (or a) major factor in not building affordable housing and the answer is almost certainly no. If it's not, then this is just elitistic moralizing from the ivory tower.

Happy to be proven wrong by the way. (non-sarcastic)

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#323

Post by drstewart »

jb1991 wrote: post #111
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #102

Airbnb has been very human hostile since the beginning. The first time I had to create an account, they required that I connect with a google account with access to all my contacts. Then ask me to make a video of myself. I didn't create the account and booked an hotel. Now they are less aggressive with their new procedures, but still, you can see that the people behind it see technical solutions way before they perce…

I’ve been so turned off by the entire concept of AirBnB, ever since their practices ruined several cities I love with massive overtourism influence. Like so many tech companies, the influence has just gotten completely out of control in the modern world on a global scale.

Exactly. Look at Venice, which was a quaint little town nobody had ever heard of until Airbnb came long. As you correctly point out, without Airbnb excessive tourism wouldn't exist.

It's so nice that I've been able to find a single villain to blame this problem on instead of talking about the broader housing crisis that leads to this, which is completely the fault of governments to address housing shortages due to influence from NIMBYs and corporations.

As further proof you're correct, look at Miami Beach. It's banned Airbnbs and short term rentals, and now housing there is incredibly affordable and not the most expensive in Florida.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#324

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

dathinab wrote: post #271
Monotoko wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some very American ones such as the fire hydrants that really catch me out as someone who's not American, I can only imagine what it's like for those with English as a second language.

Oh ya, it's really funny. It can be a problem even for Google Captcha. Like: - Taxies are not yellow in all countries - Fire hydrants like that aren't a thing in many countries either (e.g. in Germany they are below a small hatch in the ground) - US School Busses - Even Street Signs can look and be placed very different. - What is recognized as a shop/restaurant and similar based on the style of the sign board But th…

It reminds me of a thread the other week about data protections in france. People were complaining about not being able to have a one size fits all solution for all jurisdictions (and that that one size should have US style limited data protections).

The idea that stuck with me from it is that we’ve been spoiled as devs by the early low hanging fruit version of the internet. The MVPs were enough better than non-digital incumbents that we could just export california everywhere.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#325

Post by drstewart »

dorchadas wrote: post #320
mikem170 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you say that city planners are to blame for not providing enough supply to meet the demand? Also, I wonder if maybe lots of people don't like existing hotels for some reason? It seems the locals get forced out wherever demand vastly exceeds supply, like in the beach town where I used to live, where so many people want to visit and there just isn't enough housing/hotels for them. The locals are opposed to mor…

> Couldn't you say that city planners are to blame for not providing enough supply to meet the demand? But there often is enough supply to meet the demand. The issue is tourists feeling entitled to living in a house, not the fact that all hotels are 100% booked all weekend. > Also, I wonder if maybe lots of people don't like existing hotels for some reason? I'm sure that's it, honestly. But when you're traveling away…

Why do the locals feel entitled to housing over non-locals? Sounds like a lot of entitlement, which goes both ways.

The issue is that locals feel entitled to corral scary outsiders into certain zones, which is a high level of entitlement that exacerbates the problem.

When you realize your argument just boils down to xenophobia and "outsiders bad" it mostly falls apart. Locals don't get special rights because they're locals.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#326

Post by VincentEvans »

lambic wrote: post #274
VincentEvans wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 43. What exactly happens once I turn 50 that I will no longer be able to add a couple of single digit numbers? Incidentally, how old are you, and do you have any involvement with IT hiring?

A study was making the rounds last week saying that the brain stays "sharp" until 60. Presumably 60 is an average which means people in their 50s will start to see some decline.

I think they should do some studies whether there’s any basis to my observation of a sudden sharp rise in IQ among SDEs once they reach mid-30ies, as they seem to suddenly want to be treated as adults and no longer fall for foosball tables, slides, colorful company attire, and free vending machine lunches as a substitute for being treated like people. ;)

Coming back to the topic, it’s interesting how this IQ cliff seems to exclusively affect ICs in IT, while somehow spares all of the middle and upper management, that all seems to be on top of their compensation game as they gracefully age ever so upwards in titles.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#327

Post by Grustaf »

vidarh wrote: post #313
Grustaf wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is not that sharing bathrooms is neutral, the point is that if it's something that huge number of middle class people are happy to do while students or young professionals, it's pretty far from the human rights violation some people seem to think it is.

First of all, a very tiny proportion of people are middle class while they are students or young professionals. Secondly, nobody here that I have seen are suggesting that it's a "human rights violation", but there is also a huge difference between people making the choice of living in a more central location or a higher standard flat and sharing a bathroom with a few people vs. establishing sharing bathrooms with str…

Millions of people, like myself, grow up comfortably middle class, and yet have no problem adapting to dorm life. What is objectionable about expecting people who receive free housing to live under the same conditions as students? Are students lesser humans?

And where exactly do you draw the line, how high standard does free housing have to have? Middle class? Upper middle class?

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#328

Post by dorchadas »

drstewart wrote: post #325
dorchadas wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Couldn't you say that city planners are to blame for not providing enough supply to meet the demand? But there often is enough supply to meet the demand. The issue is tourists feeling entitled to living in a house, not the fact that all hotels are 100% booked all weekend. > Also, I wonder if maybe lots of people don't like existing hotels for some reason? I'm sure that's it, honestly. But when you're traveling away…

Why do the locals feel entitled to housing over non-locals? Sounds like a lot of entitlement, which goes both ways. The issue is that locals feel entitled to corral scary outsiders into certain zones, which is a high level of entitlement that exacerbates the problem. When you realize your argument just boils down to xenophobia and "outsiders bad" it mostly falls apart. Locals don't get special rights because they're…

> Why do the locals feel entitled to housing over non-locals? Sounds like a lot of entitlement, which goes both ways.

I mean, if you don't believe that the people who actually reside, work and live their lives permanently in an area are more deserving of the housing in that area than people who come maybe once a year for a week, then we'll never agree.

> The issue is that locals feel entitled to corral scary outsiders into certain zones, which is a high level of entitlement that exacerbates the problem.

> When you realize your argument just boils down to xenophobia and "outsiders bad" it mostly falls apart. Locals don't get special rights because they're locals.

Nobody said anything about 'scary outsiders', or xenophobia. I'm not advocating for the abolition of tourism. I'm saying tourism shouldn't come at the expense of the people who literally live and work and provide the amenities those tourists so desire when they visit. And AirBnB facilitates all of this. Locals absolutely should get special rights, especially in terms of housing, when they're the ones who will still be there after the tourists have left. The fact that you try to make this an argument about me being xenophobic or saying 'outsiders bad' shows you're not arguing in good faith.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#329

Post by Grustaf »

vidarh wrote: post #311
Grustaf wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Substandard" is not the complement of "luxury". And nobody is saying that middle class people won't pay the extra cost of private bathrooms, clearly they are doing that. The point under discussion is if it's inhumane to give poor people free housing where they have to live like European middle class students and share bathrooms, and the answer is a very clear "no, it's not inhumane".

No, substandard implies it's below the expected standard, and it is as demonstrated by the fact that the market expectation is to have bathrooms. How many places do you see on the market without a private bathroom exactly? EDIT: In fact, many places you'd struggle to even get approval for places with communal bathrooms without special exemptions, as it's so far below expected standards that these expectations now oft…

> expected standard

The places you see on the market are not free housing, so it doesn't really say anything about what we are discussing.

> entirely unacceptable to impose it on anyone

This is just silly. Nobody wants to impose anything on anyone. We are talking about housing that is provided for free, I don't think anyone is proposing round up people and force them to live there.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#330

Post by Grustaf »

sol_invictus wrote: post #321
cambaceres wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grandfathers point was that shared bathrooms would decrease costs of building new apartments, which is good for poor people with less income. Needing to share a bathroom with someone is no problem compared to not having a place to stay.

The question here is - is the cost difference of a shared bathroom versus a private bathroom the (or a) major factor in not building affordable housing and the answer is almost certainly no. If it's not, then this is just elitistic moralizing from the ivory tower. Happy to be proven wrong by the way. (non-sarcastic)

Elitistic moralizing? The only ones moralizing here are those that think dorms are inhumane.

Anyway, in most countries we do build social housing, it's not a question of not building at all, it's a question of being able to build more if you spend less on each unit, and that is obviously the case. As you probably know, bathrooms and kitchens are by far the most expensive rooms, so you can definitely save a lot of money if you share them.

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