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Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#361

Post by pixl97 »

petra wrote: post #226
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because 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 do wonder really:given a choice between having a car and having internet, what would people prefer? My guess is that many would prefer having internet access.

Heh, I recently sold one of my cars because of my ability to work from home.

Many more people, at least in the US are considered walkable communities than in the recent past.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#362

Post by pixl97 »

gitgud wrote: post #220
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because 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…

> Today the average person crosses the Atlantic no faster than we did decades ago. Innovation is driven by demand, and demand for faster travel times is mainly fueled by people wanting quicker business trips, not people on holidays. Demand for business trips has waned dramatically due to the meteoric rise of video-conferencing. So businesses are spending less less time and money sending humans traveling around the wo…

Exactly my thought. Why go over the ocean in hours when I can do it in milliseconds.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#363

Post by 6510 »

root_axis wrote: post #356
kareemsabri wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely curious about this, and would like to see some data. When I started coding professionally the LAMP stack was the go-to, and your program would generally just do all the "work" in the context of a web request and then render an HTML page in response. Now, the systems are much more complex for sure (queues and asynchronous processing, event buses, microservices, multiple databases for different purposes)…

> Of course I could be dealing with a bias because as a novice programmer I worked on simpler programs and now I work on more complex / powerful programs. The software techniques you've listed are among the reasons why it's even possible to build more complex and powerful programs. Forward progress in software is always resisted by the contemporary programmers of the day who are deeply fond of their chosen anachronis…

This is so true its funny. I wrote c64 machine code and assembly still looks ridiculous. How is NOP easier to remember than AE? Every time I see base64 in JSON I'm reminded how much better life is if you make the effort to design a data format for a specific purpose. When I looked at all the convenient things in jquery some functions had just one line in them (I need help with this?), other things were so "good" they had me wonder why that isn't simply part of js. I'm aware how unreasonable it is in how you cant win either way.

I cant wait for the day some kind of GUI programming glued onto excel takes over the world so that we can all simultaneously raise our fist at the screen like grumpy old men.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#364

Post by acheron »

nine_k wrote: post #192
kareemsabri wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely curious about this, and would like to see some data. When I started coding professionally the LAMP stack was the go-to, and your program would generally just do all the "work" in the context of a web request and then render an HTML page in response. Now, the systems are much more complex for sure (queues and asynchronous processing, event buses, microservices, multiple databases for different purposes)…

Look at: Google Maps, Figma, any advanced enough web mail, Office 360. Think about implementing these using the LAMP stack + Javascript from 2000.

The growth of JavaScript is not something to be happy about.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#365

Post by pixl97 »

danans wrote: post #335
dilyevsky wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? It’s clear to me krugman never held a hammer in his life bc that is just laughable statement

Obviously he was referring to the existence of conveniences of the homes (dishwashers, laundry machines), not how they were built or the finishings. There have been very few big changes in how homes are built since that time. A little more insulation, and they've gotten even bigger, but they are otherwise pretty static.

Ok, with unlimited power what would you change with your home?

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#366

Post by nwienert »

RachelF wrote: post #331
nwienert wrote: post #271

Earlier 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…

Your 22 Outlander won't last as long as your 1995 car. There's just too much tech in it that will go wrong, or be unsupported in 10 years. No one will know how to fix it. We are adding complexity where we should not be, but then cars are designed to be sold, not to be used for more than 3 years.

Swap in a 2022 Toyota 4Runner and my argument stands. I was hoping I didn’t have to state that obvious fact. I also have a 10 year warranty so in 10 years it will definitely be serviced.

As the sibling comment points out on average longevity is way up, another point against older cars. Safety also way, way up.

Nostalgia mixed with contrarianism are potent drugs, but cars are the perfect case against things not changing, positive change has accelerated the last 20 years.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#367

Post by supernovae »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #323
mymythisisthis wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Plenty of professionals are out there teaching on youtube. I can fix my car, my plumbing, my electrical, I can frame an addition to my house, I can setup an irrigation system. Rebuild a chainsaw, build my own furniture, refinish my floor, fix my drywall, concrete flatwork. These are all things I've done in the past year. The proliferation of digital video, high quality cameras, microphones and editing software has ma…

This entire thread feels borderline ridiculous.

We have all the internet but damn even books are better and broader today. I can order that rare special indy book and print it on demand and have it show up in 3 days

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#368

Post by pixl97 »

danans wrote: post #340
gtowey wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's trying to say that while superficially a house may appear much the same as in the 80's, anyone who has hands on building experience would immediately recognize the difference in materials and construction techniques.

> anyone who has hands on building experience would immediately recognize the difference in materials and construction techniques The point is that the differences are largely incremental. Same stick built frames, same flimsy building wrap, same poorly installed fiberglass batts. None of that compares to the quantum leap that was indoor plumbing, in home telecommunications, automatic kitchen and laundry machines. But…

Because the world runs out of quantum leaps at times.

In theory we can 3d print houses now, but those are not more useful than a stick built house. They are very easy to change and repair which a feature most people like. The building wraps these days have rather insane R values and do a good job insulating the house. And most houses have some kind of blow in for insulation.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#369

Post by seoaeu »

thehappypm wrote: post #283
metadat wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the means, it's nice. Where is this mythical $45/mo. 10gbps fiber connect?

Starry in Boston is around this perf and cost

Starry seems to charge $50 per month for 0.2 Gbit/second speeds. OP is claiming 50x faster speed at a lower price

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#370

Post by chii »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #265
gcanyon wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> performs about the same as MS Word did on a 486 with a floppy Except (gdocs for comparison) I now can: 1. Effortlessly access the doc on multiple devices, wherever there is cell or WiFi. 2. See a visual history of every change I've ever made to the doc. 3. Collaborate with many other people in real time. 4. Easily incorporate images, tables, drawings, and other files. 5. Compare documents. 6. Use other character se…

Right, but how many things are actually central to document processing?

> actually central to document processing?

ahh, the no true scotsman style of logical fallacy.

Document processing is not strict nor defined. The features listed in the parent comment are all very useful, and if the floppy disk document processor of 30 years ago could do it, the people there would also find it useful.

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