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Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

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Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#231

Post by arminiusreturns »

iammjm wrote: post #36

Educational games. Hear me out. The way we teach us basically how we did it 500 years ago. This is stupid, boring and not scalable. We dont have enough teachers, attention span is short, education is costly. So we need something that scales, is fun and involves all types of media plus gamifies education. Think Skyrim or GTA meets MS Encarta

I pitched such a thing to a department of education grant program and got rejected. I called it the Meta Educational Environment for Simulation and Gaming (MEESG) (long before FB thought about turning into Meta). The pitch was to create a core open source platform for which subject matter experts could create their own specialized training packages, tied in with a web interface for teachers/students to track progress, gamifying the educational process, which was the key to engaging the students (feedback on progress).

Oh well, I still like the idea though. One of the biggest benefits was that certain trainings are either very expensive just due to materials, etc, or are very dangerous (high-voltage electrician stuff for example), and doing it virtually would have a much lower risk and cost less.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#232

Post by ripper1138 »

lettergram wrote: post #165

Everything agriculture, most farmers had their children go off to school and then the cities. Now it’s only really people in their 50s in the fields. As someone who has a farm and regularly asks for knowledge transfers from the older farmers around me.. it’ll be difficult when they move on. It’s things you wouldn’t expect either, like how to install a new piston & hydraulics line on a tractor. Or how to repair an old…

If it makes you feel any better, I grew up in the Midwest and there was no shortage of young people going into Ag.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#233

Post by ripper1138 »

tylerlh wrote: post #67

Supply chain/logistics. I've been simultaneously surprised and unsurprised by the relatively minuscule number of people interested in driving technology and change for this space forward compared to other spaces.

Maybe you’d be surprised at how many people at Amazon work on logistics.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#234

Post by dragostudor »

HorizonXP wrote: post #80
tylerlh wrote: post #67

Supply chain/logistics. I've been simultaneously surprised and unsurprised by the relatively minuscule number of people interested in driving technology and change for this space forward compared to other spaces.

I'm actively working in this space right now. Working with a Fortune 100 to replatform their entire supply chain software. Currently handles all $15B of their US revenue.

Fascinating, would be great to chat about your thoughts on the future of the space

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#235

Post by rochak »

iammjm wrote: post #36

Educational games. Hear me out. The way we teach us basically how we did it 500 years ago. This is stupid, boring and not scalable. We dont have enough teachers, attention span is short, education is costly. So we need something that scales, is fun and involves all types of media plus gamifies education. Think Skyrim or GTA meets MS Encarta

As an alternative, wouldn't it be better to invest into games that teach you something or sharpen your thinking? Playing fun games that elicited curiosity and boosted logical thinking had a lot to do with how I ended up doing what I do for a living (software engineering).

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#236

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

dredmorbius wrote: post #51

Railroads. Specifically freight rail. There is stunningly little literature on any R&D in conventional freight rail transport, something I discovered when looking for any published research some months back. High-speed rail, yes. Regular old freight, no. Contrast this with autonomous and electrified trucking as alternatives, with which rail could offer considerable synergies. I'd suspect that break-bulk, trainset ass…

Self driving train seems like a no brainer. I suspect that even with the tech 10 years ago it could have been solved. Where are they and why isn't someone working on it?

I suspect when something is this obvious, yet we don't see a product, it has to do with someone in the industry fighting change and making sure it does not happen.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#237

Post by theonething »

iammjm wrote: post #36

Educational games. Hear me out. The way we teach us basically how we did it 500 years ago. This is stupid, boring and not scalable. We dont have enough teachers, attention span is short, education is costly. So we need something that scales, is fun and involves all types of media plus gamifies education. Think Skyrim or GTA meets MS Encarta

Short attention span is in large part because of computers, phones, etc. So putting ed games on them doesn't seem to address the core problem.

Our solution has been a no screen time policy. Education is strictly non-digital and a lot of real world, hands on learning and dialogue with real people. And our kid has loved books since infancy.

Does it have to be so strict? I'm not sure, but I do know that our society is inundated with screens designed to addict us and if I give in a little, they just beg for more. We'll introduce screens eventually because it's inevitable, but delaying that as long as possible especially during the formative years has worked well for us so far.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#238

Post by dragostudor »

systemvoltage wrote: post #52

Industrial automation and manufacturing: - Need a dedicated degree (2 year as well as 4 year) in Manufacturing - Trade schools and apprenticeship programs that do not sound like scam - Automated material movement and handling - Machine vision, automation of quality assurance - Automated mold making and plastic injection molding optimization (still done by humans and takes 4 months) - Factory software (ERP, MRP, MES,…

If you're working on any of these, it would be great to chat

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#239

Post by charleshan »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #85
mrtksn wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe at all in gamification in education. The kick that inspires new scientists and engineers comes from the gratification of learning or figuring out something as nothing feels better than figuring out how/why something is happening and how to push it to it's edge cases. Even chasing grades is a perverse incentive IMHO.

Educational games are not the same as "gamification" as an incentive structure, and I also think you're being very prescriptive of your own research style. I knew several academics in my PhD that thrived off being able to publish papers in better conferences, faster, etc than their peers. Also there's a pretty strong niche of puzzle game solvers (think the MIT Puzzle Hunts) that love thinking through problems in gami…

This comment reminds me of Status as a Service by Eugene Wei.

"Some people find status games distasteful. Despite this, everyone I know is engaged in multiple status games. Some people sneer at people hashtag spamming on Instagram, but then retweet praise on Twitter. Others roll their eyes at photo albums of expensive meals on Facebook but then submit research papers to prestigious journals in the hopes of being published. Parents show off photos of their children performances at recitals, people preen in the mirror while assessing their outfits, employees flex on their peers in meetings, entrepreneurs complain about 30 under 30 lists while wishing to be on them, reporters check the Techmeme leaderboards; life is nothing if not a nested series of status contests."

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#240

Post by lotsofpulp »

quesera wrote: post #206
lotsofpulp wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Especially if you have an SUV or higher car you can easily crawl under. Just unscrew the original plug, screw in a Fumoto valve, and an entire oil change is done in under 20 min, and then you just drop off the old oil at Autozone or whatever. While the oil is draining, you can change the air filters too. Buy the Kirkland brand oil at Costco, and you do not have to trust whoever the mechanic shop hires to bust yo…

Option 1 requirements: - Equipment: wrenches, oil collection pan, oil container for transport to disposal, funnel? - Knowledge: Quality of oils, filters, Oil weights (5W20? 10W30?) - Willingness: To get dirty, to stain the driveway - Time: 30min if all goes well, then time to take waste oil to disposal - Trust: In self - Funds: $20 for oil and filter, assuming disposal is free Option 2 requirements: - Time: 15min, pl…

> I change my own oil also, but I have no rational explanation for this choice.

Of course you do. All the items you listed are a small, one time cost. Watch a YouTube video, buy the wrench, pan, and funnel ($50?). The “knowledge” of which oil to use takes 20 seconds to look up in the manual in the glove box of the car. And the disposal is pretty easy, you take the empty oil bottles, fill them back up with old oil, and dump it at Autozone.

And for this initial, let’s say 1 hour of work for procurement, you get to guarantee that the oil change on your car (which represents a significant portion of the average American’s wealth) is done properly, with zero risk of it going wrong.

Now, there is nothing objectively wrong with NOT wanting to do this and just preferring to pay someone else. But for a household with 2 ICE cars that they own for 10+ years, this is very little work for a lot of gain, and watching 1 less Netflix show is probably not going to hurt. The tools for for all of this also take a small space to store.

Which is why I do not consider it a “no brainer” to outsource oil changes.

> Of course I use better oil and filters than the shop would. Does this matter?

Why would it not if you intend on driving the car for 200k miles? My main concern is some minimum wage mechanic not doing the oil change properly. I know they are not getting paid enough to care, and if I have to stop and check to see if it was done properly, I might as well do it myself.

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