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

Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 603 posts

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

#441

Post by dvdkhlng »

fieldcny wrote: post #268
lukeschlather wrote: post #262

Earlier 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…

But you need to be aware of the downsides of becoming inadvertently over-reliant on GPS [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_GPS

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

#442

Post by herbst »

dockd wrote: post #175
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…

How about money? In 1960, you either had to have cash or find a place that took a check to make purchases. Maybe some places took a credit card. Ever have to wait in line behind someone that is writing a check? "Productive" won't come to mind. To get that cash you had to walk into a bank during banking hours. Then we got ATMs and could get our money any time of day. No more cutting out of work to deposit that royalty…

Oh money...

We can't even do international banking properly. There is literally a list of countries I can't do 'normal' wire transfers to or get from without complicated hoops or huge waiting times and fees.

There is a huge list of things I can't pay for with credit card. I am not even allowed to open a shop selling dildos without getting a highly specialized and expensive credit card middle man. I had to stop several projects because I couldn't find a payment processor that was accepting low volume clients. Strengthening the monopoly in some niches.

If holidays fall weird a wire transaction can take days. 5 days is my recent record. This should be normal in 2022?

You can't just send any amount of money to anyone. High amounts can trigger bells and further complicate and lengthen transfers. We have literally lost control about our own money. In many countries it is already illegal to buy something expensive with cash.

So the productivity won for a credit card users is wasted somewhere else in this utterly complex system of payments & finances. If not a coder that bangs his head in frustration it is the tax office wasting human hours.

We have 'solutions' like Crypto, PayPal, Payeer but all come with their own issues and benefits.

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

#443

Post by throwaway2037 »

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

https://www.starry.com/ shows plans with 200Mbps down for 50 USD per month. I don't see anything about 10Gbps. Maybe this person lives in Switzerland? I have seen some crazy stuff there for about 50 USD.

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

#444

Post by widdershins »

harryf wrote: post #416
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…

> Another interesting thought experiment is, how many digital services, modern tech and so on would you be willing to trade for something mundane, say your dishwasher, a hot shower, the toilet, a car, soap, if you could only have one or the other? I think it really puts into perspective how much or rather little value those 'innovations' add. Exactly! In fact I‘d go further and say - in some cases - “innovation” has…

But isn't that true of all innovations? That the earlier ones solve more basic/critical needs than the later ones? Would you trade a hot shower for glass in your windows? Or a plough that enables you face starvation less frequently?

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

#445

Post by spupe »

dredmorbius wrote: post #404
pixl97 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should instead ask " how long must a rich person show up before their flight" I have not read the book, but from your quote selection so far it seems to mismanaged comparisons of the 1% to the 80% of the population. If you looked at the poorer part of the population that things are generally much faster since they get to travel by plane at all.

The general public was flying en masse by the 1960s, though the pace picked up greatly through that decade. Gordon's point is that the best commercial-grade service ... didn't move much in the seventy-eight years* from 1936--2014. It's been nearly another decade and that story's largely the same. In a world which obsesses over Moore's Law and doubling improvements every 1.5 -- 3 years, no appreciable movement in 8 de…

Flights were five times more expensive in the period you refer to [1]. I would bet that the number of fliers increased almost proportionally. A significant part of this cost reduction is efficiency gains, with better, lighter airplanes that consume less fuel. Airplanes are also safer today. To call all that "no appreciable movement" is unfair.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3022215/what-it-was-really-like-...

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

#446

Post by alaricus »

Gigachad wrote: post #436
alaricus wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today's services are indeed much more sophisticated, but not necessarily better. This is because better and cheaper hardware made people sloppy, not because we have much better services.

We do have much better services though. The feature set and scale of modern platforms and tools is mind blowing and so far ahead of what existed 10 years ago. If you released any of the major apps we used 10 years ago today, most people would consider them unusable garbage.

I hate modern apps. They are bloated, slow, buggy and not at all customizable. Something went wrong in the last 10 years.

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

#448

Post by formerkrogemp »

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #407
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Electric cars? Come on. They're barely even a change from a consumer perspective. Someone from 1950 wouldn't even notice the difference, unless you told them exactly what they were looking at. Wut? I call major bullshit on this. Yes, obviously electric cars generally do the same thing as ICE cars, but the consumer experience is so much better for me is that after owning an electric car I will never, ever even consi…

You know electric cars aren't a new invention, right? First ones came about in the 1880s, and they were quite common in the early 20th century. Sure, not common in 1950, but the user experience difference between an ICE car and electric is, to a 1950s or 1910s person, basically noise. The ICE car is noisy, electric not. The acceleration, ride comfort, features - all are similar enough to be interchangeable to someone…

Battery chemistry and renewable energy have advanced significantly. I appreciate and share your overly broad cynicism, but the technological advances of the past couple of centuries have been the exception rather than the norm of stagnation throughout human history. I think it's okay to acknowledge and celebrate advancements we've made in many fields recently.

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

#449

Post by dredmorbius »

spupe wrote: post #445
dredmorbius wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general public was flying en masse by the 1960s, though the pace picked up greatly through that decade. Gordon's point is that the best commercial-grade service ... didn't move much in the seventy-eight years* from 1936--2014. It's been nearly another decade and that story's largely the same. In a world which obsesses over Moore's Law and doubling improvements every 1.5 -- 3 years, no appreciable movement in 8 de…

Flights were five times more expensive in the period you refer to [1]. I would bet that the number of fliers increased almost proportionally. A significant part of this cost reduction is efficiency gains, with better, lighter airplanes that consume less fuel. Airplanes are also safer today. To call all that "no appreciable movement" is unfair. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3022215/what-it-was-really-like-...

Noted, FYI: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31500807

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

#450

Post by boznz »

torginus wrote: post #395
Quinner wrote: post #151

Earlier 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. One way to tell whether you're in an 80s house would be to look…

With regards to books, this is such a weird take - high quality, well curated books had (and have) such a density of good information, that a stack of paper had all the information you could possibly look on a given for in a concise, reliable manner. For example, when I tried picking up electronics as a curious high-schooler, I managed to pick up a clearance sale copy of The Art of Electronics - it had all the inform…

Art of Electronics is the EE Bible, has been updated a couple of times everything is googleable now though that I generally get the answer quicker that way, same as my ide, pressing F1 generally gives me the answer but google also does it and in the context of the problem I am having so that is definitely a +1 for newer technology.
Post reply on HN