22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#91

Post by assimpleaspossi » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 9:34 AM UTC

trimethylpurine wrote: post #34

dleslie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most American suburbs are awful if you enjoy any sort of regular physical activity, and simply prefer to walk to the market instead of drive. They're amazing if you love sitting in traffic.

I'm in a suburb. Not an expensive one. Downtown is a 20 minute drive in light traffic. Within a 10 minute walk there are office buildings, grocery stores, shopping mall, gyms, parks, hiking and biking trails, etc. There are many cities to choose from; some are better planned than others. Based on your comment I would guess that you've opted to live in one of the "cool" cities in America.

Was going to say the same. I have never lived in a house that did not have a garage.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#92

Post by amelius » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 9:38 AM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #5

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #4

It really is wild what you can do in your garage these days. Since the early 2010’s there has been a true revolution in this space that has only accelerated over the last few years. I have an injection molding machine that I built in my garage for less than $1500 USD that has a 3 cubic inch injection volume, able to make a large variety of plastic components at small production scale using a mold I printed from my $5…

I wonder where I could get the salary needed to have a garage, seems like that's the important bit ;)

Other options:

1. Find a job where you have a workspace or a lab to tinker in.

2. Find a makerspace/hackerspace in your neighborhood.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#93

Post by Gud » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 9:51 AM UTC

vasco wrote: post #79

EliRivers wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that thread, his garage is larger than the entire space I rented for living in when I was his age. But the point I'm going on to make isn't just about how stupid the cost of housing is; it's that the high cost of housing comes with extra costs that we might not even see. How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, some of which would genuinely bloom into real advances and ideas and genuine new wealth…

> How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, Not many, same distribution would apply to that population. Most would scroll tiktok in a larger house.

Most would be, but that 0.01% are the ones pushing humanity forward. Let's figure out how to give them the resources.

And how do you know most/many people aren't spending their times scrolling tiktok because they don't have the resources to do something more worthwhile?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#94

Post by vasco » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 9:54 AM UTC

Gud wrote: post #93

vasco wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, Not many, same distribution would apply to that population. Most would scroll tiktok in a larger house.

Most would be, but that 0.01% are the ones pushing humanity forward. Let's figure out how to give them the resources. And how do you know most/many people aren't spending their times scrolling tiktok because they don't have the resources to do something more worthwhile?

> And how do you know most/many people aren't spending their times scrolling tiktok because they don't have the resources to do something more worthwhile?

Because if that was it, most rich people, rich kids would be all doing crazy science experiments and advancing knowledge. But turns out they don't.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#95

Post by Aerbil313 » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:10 AM UTC

thalassophobia wrote: post #87

vasco wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, Not many, same distribution would apply to that population. Most would scroll tiktok in a larger house.

Yes, but more creative people would be making something new, even if most would use it for nothing. No matter the amount of additional innovators, the total would still be bigger than it is now.

Do you imply creative people are a special breed who are immune to attention engineering?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#96

Post by refurb » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:13 AM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #24

ccorcos wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m constantly surprised how tech folks seem to undervalue the suburbs.

Most American suburbs are awful if you enjoy any sort of regular physical activity, and simply prefer to walk to the market instead of drive. They're amazing if you love sitting in traffic.

This is a very black and white view of the suburbs.

I would call the entire peninsula from SF to San Jose one big suburb.

Hell, everything West of Gough St in SF is pretty suburb-like: mostly residential, a few shopping streets and no offices.

Despite that there are plenty of areas that are very walkable, including public transportation and shopping for daily needs.

Not every suburb looks like a cluster of single family homes with nothing else within 10 miles.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#97

Post by _visgean » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:14 AM UTC

vasco wrote: post #82

reactordev wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>”I think the key is to have everything delivered to you.“ This is why we can’t have nice things. We simply can’t rely on a class of workers to dote on us simply because we fancy living in the burbs. The amount of waste just so you can get your instacart. The reality is near 8% mortgages have put suburbs with garages out of reach for almost everyone without a trust fund or selling their startup.

> We simply can’t rely on a class of workers to dote on us simply because we fancy living in the burbs You make zero sense. Going to the grocery store involves the same workers helping you pay for gas and selling you groceries, or cooking your meals. Are you a recluse that interacts with zero workers? Who in their right mind calls someone else out for using a regular service? You'd prefer those people to not have job…

Its about efficiency, a grocery store will require one large supply truck. Supplying everyone to their home requires way more people and energy.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#98

Post by refurb » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:14 AM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #66

dottjt wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the key is to have everything delivered to you. Once you figure that out, suburbs are great. Of course, it's not equivalent to being able to walk to places, but I feel the pros outweigh the cons in terms of what you do get from the suburbs.

>”I think the key is to have everything delivered to you.“ This is why we can’t have nice things. We simply can’t rely on a class of workers to dote on us simply because we fancy living in the burbs. The amount of waste just so you can get your instacart. The reality is near 8% mortgages have put suburbs with garages out of reach for almost everyone without a trust fund or selling their startup.

What’s the difference between delivery in the city versus the suburbs? Does less distance make it ok?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#99

Post by checkyoursudo » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:21 AM UTC

saulpw wrote: post #65

xvedejas wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you need to drive to downtown suggests you might not have much garage space after all?

No one parks in the garage in the suburbs :) They either park in the driveway or on the street, both of which have ample room to store vehicles.

I tried parking in my garage for a while, but the car took up too much valuable space.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#100

Post by a_humean » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:21 AM UTC

Aerbil313 wrote: post #95

thalassophobia wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but more creative people would be making something new, even if most would use it for nothing. No matter the amount of additional innovators, the total would still be bigger than it is now.

Do you imply creative people are a special breed who are immune to attention engineering?

They are just saying that if you assume this following:

* There is a rough fixed % of people that are capable of doing interesting things and maybe useful things

* There are minimum levels of resources, time, and comfort that enables you to do interesting things

* The current population that enjoys those resources isn't actually that different from the population at large in terms of that %

Assuming all of that, if you increased the welfare of the entire population to that minimum level (would be nice to do this anyway) then the absolute number of people doing interesting and maybe useful things would increase. I would say that most of human history and esp the past few hundred years has probably proven that to be true.

It is pretty clear from the photos that this young man is very fortunate to have well off and supportive parents. Very few working age adults in full time employment could afford the things shown in those photos let alone someone still in education.