When we come up with the potential to do more with less, we invent shit to fill the gaps. I remember discovering a video of an executive from Symbolics stating that the company's goal was to make software development of all but the largest projects feasible by a single person, with the rest done by small teams. And then I looked at my own Agile-encrusted, Scrum-addled, Node-encumbered team, which could barely get a simple web app deployed in half a year, and I was like uhhhhhhh...
Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
301–310 of 603 posts
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...reference books, encyclopedias, rolodexes, filing cabinets..." were all nicely curated. Today the signal to noise ratio is extremely bad. It's more productive having somebody show you how to do something, than trying to learn it yourself. Perhaps in the 1980s when the economy was going better, it was easier to connect with people willing to share, teach, mentor. Perhaps people have been forced to be more competit…
What is the point you're trying to make here? That somehow people were better off for having to spend hours thumbing through books instead of searching things on the Web?
The fastest way of learning something is to have a professional teach you. Not even the Internet can beat that. Because of cut backs to education, we have fewer good mentors. Because of loss in manufacturing in N. America there are fewer skilled professionals to pass on their knowledge.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#303What's the point of increasing productivity? Does higher productivity mean higher resource-conversion?
Just to keep up with population growth the economy needs to grow so there will be enough jobs, goods, and services per capita. If per capita wealth is to increase, not only do there need to be more workers but also more output per person. It's very hard for an economy to be steady state. You're either growing or dying.
Productivity growth is efficiency. 3% of people work in agriculture when before 100% of people were subsidence farmers. The entire modern economy is possible due to productivity gains in food production.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was only before TV. The expression originally referred to religion, but later referred to television. For example, see the citation provided to the July 15, 1957 issue of Time magazine.
Out in the more capitalism-loving parts of the country, it was just called the idiot box, the boob tube, etc.
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy called it "the Drug of the Nation". The band was from the Bay Area. Does that qualify as a "capitalism-loving part of the country".
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Yes. Even the cheapest house built to code will be noticeably better than one from 1980s. The quality of materials, technology of materials, wiring, plumbing, flooring, insulation, etc will all be better. > The difference between a car right now and a car 30 years ago is that you can now play angry…
> Even the cheapest house built to code will be noticeably better than one from 1980s. The quality of materials, technology of materials, wiring, plumbing, flooring, insulation, etc will all be better. This is definitely not true. Old houses have solid lumber, new ones are lightweight softwoods. Copper pipes replaced with plastic. Maybe Marble kitchens are nicer? More energy efficient is likely. Certainly 30 somethin…
What utility does the solid lumber provide over the lightweight softwoods? What utility does the copper provide over plastic?
For lightweight softwood, I can at least think of the utility that it will be cheaper. And for plastic over copper plumbing, same thing, it will cost less, but it will also be more resistant to corrosion and easier to repair.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
I upgraded from a 95 4Runner to a 22 Outlander and it’s like a spaceship on wheels in comparison. Literally every piece of the car is in a different class and the tech is insane that just didn’t exist then, I mean it basically drives itself. It’s dramatically safer, more efficient, comfier, faster, quieter. I no longer hate long drives, they’re quite nice. The speakers are amazing and the road noise is basically gone…
A 95 4Runner restored to like new condition would be an excellent ride today, Gad mileage notwithstanding. Run out vs. new is a straw man w/r/t/ old tech vs new.
It was super well maintained, nothing was wrong with it.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally I try to turn GPS off as much as possible but I also frequently consult it even for routes that I know well. And come on, maps are excellent, there's no garbage there. Last weekend I was frustrated that Google was unaware of a road reroute but that is leaps and bounds ahead of the days of paper maps. Yeah, there's a lot of garbage on the Internet but it's also remarkably easy to find high-quality informati…
I agree that GPS and maps/directions are a magnificent improvement. I remember what it was like to get lost, and be lost for hours, late at night nothing open, no one but unsavory characters out. I remember how hard long trips could be even with maps or trip-tiks from AAA (which were awesome) GPS enables all sort logistics, it allows transport companies to ensure trucks are driven safely, to know when and where goods…
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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once an argument has been laid out in detail, providing a poignant summary in one sentence leaves a more lasting impression on the reader.
So your argument is that all technical advancement in the last 50/60 years is just marketing? That’s a pretty bold statement supported by literally nothing, just because you don’t feel like certain tech has added anything doesn’t mean it hasn’t. Productivity is an incredibly hard thing to capture, especially with the move to away from manufacturing and physical production. One could easily argue that the productivity…
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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#309Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…
I don't think your comment does justice to how much we have advanced since 1960.. Today.. * we can have pretty much any food delivered to me with a click of a button * We can have a ride at anytime to any destination with a click of a button * Communicate instantly with millions of people with a click of a button * Huge automation in business operations and logistics * AIs that can literally draw pictures and write s…
the bit vs. atoms thing is interesting though
We don't have the ability to regenerate someone's arm in real time or program it to become the limb of another animal in real time.
Teleportation, FTL, flying cars (anti gravity), consciousness transfer, 3D printed food from raw atoms, seamless BCID, direct matter to energy conversion, space elevator, real holograms, all those currently sci-fi/impossible things
plasma/laser/particle weapons which Nikola Tesla supposedly was working on back then but with miniaturized fusion energy sources maybe it'll be a thing (small cyclotron too).
active camouflage (cheap mass produced lcd display/camera overlaid on aircraft) haha name every sci-fi concept you've ever seen
I remember the first time I saw a helmholtz coil in action (bending glowing electron beam into a circle via magnetism) that was crazy but of course tv, even those tiny ones size of a walkman
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. Honestly, it seems like you're just picking some incremental o…
Personally I try to turn GPS off as much as possible but I also frequently consult it even for routes that I know well. And come on, maps are excellent, there's no garbage there. Last weekend I was frustrated that Google was unaware of a road reroute but that is leaps and bounds ahead of the days of paper maps. Yeah, there's a lot of garbage on the Internet but it's also remarkably easy to find high-quality informati…
> Personally I try to turn GPS off as much as possible but I also frequently consult it even for routes that I know well.
I'm not saying it's not useful. I'm just saying it's not as big of an advance as it's being made out to be.
> And come on, maps are excellent, there's no garbage there.
I've above clarified, but my "garbage" comment was not referring to maps, but other kinds of material you'd fine online. Maps are actually one of the few types of online references that tends to have very little garbage.