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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?

#451

Post by pmontra »

KronisLV wrote: post #437
chii wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [XYZ] basically demand that I do, if I want their other shiny features well, they aren't doing the demanding, if you're the one who wants those shiny features!

> well, they aren't doing the demanding, if you're the one who wants those shiny features! That's just the thing: they use all of these browser based UI technologies, these slower scripting languages and other ways to ship software in a reasonable time and so i could have the actual fancy features that pertain to the logic... ...except that I'd be far happier if they hadn't cut those corners and I'd have a fully nati…

Those technologies that make the IDE slow are the ones that improved the productivity of the developers of the IDE and let them deliver those features in a fraction of the time they would have needed 20 years ago. So their productivity improved. The productivity of their customers, I don't know. I'm not one of them and I can't judge. I guess it's a matter of the tradeoffs you wrote about.

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

#452

Post by pmontra »

rowanG077 wrote: post #239
amelius wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the "async programming" that is advocated everywhere is still the same as Windows 3.1 cooperative multitasking, just with better branding.

Depends on what you mean by async programming. If you literally mean async and await as available in Haskell, Rust, C#, JS, Python etc. Then no that's definitely not the same thing as windows 3.1's cooperative multitasking.

It's the Visual Basic event loop from the Windows 3.1 / 95 times. One thread doing all the job with callbacks for events. Events were almost only UI events back then.

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

#454

Post by dazc »

jjeaff wrote: post #394
tablespoon wrote: post #310

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. 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…

Not only gps, but just being able to find nearby hotels and check vacancy and prices. When I was a kid, we would pull in at multiple hotels and someone would have to go in and ask for prices and if they had vacancy. My mom would usually go and ask for the price because my dad felt like they gave her better prices. In fact, a few times they did - as he sent her in after he asked. So not only convenience and leveling t…

> ...we would pull in at multiple hotels and someone would have to go in and ask for prices and if they had vacancy.

Did they say they had only room left and 3 people were looking at it right now, despite it being obvious the hotel was only half occupied?

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

#455

Post by BVCommander »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #149
dragontamer wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_r5UJrxcck I always liked this IIHS crash test: 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu It really shows the progress. Seatbelts, the "rigid cage" to protect the driver, air bags, etc. etc. The 1959 Bel Air crash-dummy is clearly dead, bouncing around the cabin during the crash. The 2009 Malibu crash-dummy has a sprained neck and the face hurts from hitting the air-bag, but cl…

I see 50s-80s cars on TV and all I can visualise is that thin metal hoop steering wheel bisecting my face like a melon.

Depending on the age of the car your skull could also be cored by the steering column like an apple.

In the 50's the industry propaganda, parroted by bought and paid for regulators, was that all people involved in an automobile collision were irresponsible drivers deserving of death and disfigurement. And especially so for the colored ones, they probably drove recklessly after stealing them. You can't trust the lot of 'em.

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

#456

Post by RandomLensman »

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…

Because a lot of technology is used for every more fine grained "control-freakery" that isn't really increasing productivity but creates more administrative burden.

The amount of reporting large corporates need to do today internally and externally would not be possible with 1950s technology, for example.

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

#457

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

1123581321 wrote: post #347
RachelF wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Completely wrong, in aggregate. Vehicle longevity and reliability have significantly increased over that time period. However, when an unproven new car is compared to an old car that has already survived for a long time, it’s possible you may be right.

Unibody trucks will not outlast their framed predecessors.

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

#458

Post by nathias »

It has, but not many have taken advantage of it. It is an incomprehensible leap in self-education that has happened for my generation. People used to read by reserving books in libraries and waiting for them to arrive, taking weeks or months now you can download them immediately, able to search them and find the relevant pieces. Similarly learning of all possible skills, programing cheif among them has never been as easy. These are real productivity boons, but the article seems to be asking something completely different, more like why haven't BigTech giant profits trickled down and the answer doesn't have much to do with productivity.

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

#459

Post by shinycode »

tablespoon wrote: post #310
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…

> 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…

I went on a trip across Europe without checking any maps in advance and without any maps in my car. Multiple times. I never visited those countries before and arrived at precise locations, on time, without any kind of error.

For me that’s incredible and very reliable. Thousand of kilometers to arrive in a place I’ve never been before without memorizing the road in advance is innovation. My dad never could’ve done that at my age.

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

#460

Post by lnxg33k1 »

Because I think brain is the bottleneck, like I am feeling that there is people that is working today 12 hours a day, That has optimised notes, tools and workflow, but how much more work do you want to squeeze from humans, and then for what, so that they can be laid off when they’re not needed anymore? :0
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