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Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

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Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#51

Post by CM30 »

Cars aren't the terrible thing that many pro urban folk here seem to make them out to be, and I suspect most people prefer driving them to cycling or using public transport.

Similarly, the whole idea of automated driving becoming the default and humans not being able to drive is something I'm 100% against, since it'd be both a privacy nightmare and take away a lot of people's freedom.

The problem is really more that some places are designed to only be usable in a car, and that's what's poorly designed.

Speaking of which, also that suburbs aren't a bad thing. Again, it feels like people take the car focused design common in the US, and assume that's how these have to be. Thousands of identical houses in the middle of nowhere with everything interesting a 30 minute drive away.

But that's not necessarily true, and (as seen in most of the world), suburbs can be quite nice places to live in. A walkable one (like many in Europe) can be just as valid a place to live as a dense city neighborhood or rural area.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#52

Post by mindwok »

latexr wrote: post #48
mindwok wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Although I see much more opposition to this idea on Reddit than on HN, the feeling I get is that people are desperately trying to undermine the idea of AI performing development tasks because they're afraid of it taking their livelihood away. This is unfortunate, because whether people resist or not in the end the pragmatism and economics will win out, so developers should be embracing this.

> the feeling I get is that people are desperately trying to undermine the idea of AI performing development tasks because they're afraid of it taking their livelihood away. Your blind spot¹ is having preconceived of a negative reason for why people have a certain opinion and then judging them for the thing you disagree with in your head instead of their real reason. It’s the same rhetoric applied by the cryptocurren…

You’re doing this to me right now, no? You don’t know how I’ve come to this conclusion.

I understand your point though. I’m not referring to those who are against AI for whatever reason, because there are lots of reasons why people are against AI that are reasonable.

I’m referring to those (mostly on Reddit) who talk badly about the quality of AI, those who use it, and businesses embracing it. It’s totally fine to think AI produces crappy work, but it’s the vitriol against anyone who suggests otherwise that makes me think it comes from somewhere deeper.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#53

Post by mindwok »

kypro wrote: post #22

It's not my idea, but I strongly agree with the need for missile striking AI data centers to slow the creation of advanced AI. That said, it is the position I hold most strongly with the most uncertainty, and it's probably the only position that were I dictator I'd be very concerned I'm making a bad call.

I like your comment because this is a truly spicy idea, and seems insane to me, but I love it. The problem would be that you'd have to basically strike every data centre on earth, or at the very least all of those owned by major cloud providers because you can't easily identify which data centres are being used for which workloads. That would have enormously terrible impacts beyond slowing AI, because you'd basically take down the internet.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#54

Post by simonblack »

kypro wrote: post #25
simonblack wrote: post #15

The biggie, of course, is that US exceptionalism is pushing the US down the wrong track. That will be the economic and probably military downfall of the US and will likely occur within the next 5-10 years. (You may call me 'Cassandra'.)

As a European it makes me sad to read this. The US is exceptional in almost every way – morally, technologically, economically, politically. While the US makes mistakes, and when it does its power means the consequences of those mistakes can be extreme, it's still overwhelmingly a force for good in a world that's becoming increasingly autocratic. Don't let critics put you down. The world needs you, and I for one am g…

Exceptional.

Morally: Yes. The US has attacked other countries more than any other one has.

Technologically: The US used to be great but in the Space Race which was the US's technological zenith, it is now lagging far behind. It had to buy Russian rocket engines. For ten years or so, it couldn't put a man into orbit. After inventing solid-state, it can't manufacture the most-advanced semiconductor chips any more, China does that.

Economically: What's to say? A country with a Debt of 35-odd trillion dollars is not doing well economically.

Politically: When continuous warfare and lawfare between all the US elites is destroying US political stability, the US is certainly Politically Exceptional and not in a good way. Just the fact that the next US election candidates are Trump and Biden shows that. Surely there are better candidates available out of 350 million people, than those two.

As a European it makes me sad to read this.

As a non-European, but somebody who was proud to be "almost-French" while living in France for several years, it makes me sad to see that Europe, which could have been a superpower in its own right seems to take delight in putting another country's interests before its own, especially by killing the European economy, while watching that economy and political freedom disappearing from under its nose, and doing nothing to reverse that trend. Very sad.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#55

Post by amou234 »

simonblack wrote: post #54
kypro wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European it makes me sad to read this. The US is exceptional in almost every way – morally, technologically, economically, politically. While the US makes mistakes, and when it does its power means the consequences of those mistakes can be extreme, it's still overwhelmingly a force for good in a world that's becoming increasingly autocratic. Don't let critics put you down. The world needs you, and I for one am g…

Exceptional. Morally: Yes. The US has attacked other countries more than any other one has. Technologically: The US used to be great but in the Space Race which was the US's technological zenith, it is now lagging far behind. It had to buy Russian rocket engines. For ten years or so, it couldn't put a man into orbit. After inventing solid-state, it can't manufacture the most-advanced semiconductor chips any more, Chi…

Take off your rose colored Chinese dictatorship worshipping glasses. China is in a Great Depression and will be there for 30 years. It will be even poorer, older, and isolated in 30 years.

Also, if you believe what you say, move to China. Stop hiding in the comforts of a democratic country while wishing free countries to fall

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#56

Post by meristohm »

Rury wrote: post #31
bediger4000 wrote: post #8

Everyone really should be using Linux. It's not that hard.

Go tell that to my mother who's now in her 70s, who barely knows how to open her email (and thats assuming nothing out of the ordinary happens like her account gets locked). Yeah, linux isn't for everybody... Understanding this, is why Apple grew to become one of the most valuable companies on the planet.

The old folks at work just want to be able to click the browser icon, the email bookmark, the search button, and be able to print. One of two Windows 10 laptops in the office (the other three run LMDE) has some failing components and I have an LMDE laptop ready to replace it, with all the right buttons in the right places). The other one runs our accounting software, and I'm confident I can either make it work on Linux or migrate before Win10 is unsupported.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#57

Post by meristohm »

mindwok wrote: post #53
kypro wrote: post #22

It's not my idea, but I strongly agree with the need for missile striking AI data centers to slow the creation of advanced AI. That said, it is the position I hold most strongly with the most uncertainty, and it's probably the only position that were I dictator I'd be very concerned I'm making a bad call.

I like your comment because this is a truly spicy idea, and seems insane to me, but I love it. The problem would be that you'd have to basically strike every data centre on earth, or at the very least all of those owned by major cloud providers because you can't easily identify which data centres are being used for which workloads. That would have enormously terrible impacts beyond slowing AI, because you'd basically…

The internet has been an engaging plaything, and I think we'll be okay without it.

I'd argue that life in North America before the 1400s was meaningful and engaging, with many cultures enjoying a rich "Wikipedia" oral history going back millenia.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#58

Post by archagon »

Upvote-based, threaded discussions are not conversations and are severely lacking in nutritional value. They’re popular because they require little commitment and give you a quick dopamine hit. Real conversations happen on forums with linear discussions and are much better suited for community building and the exchange of ideas. Alas, they require a lot more work and we’ve gotten lazy.

We all think we’re talking to each other constantly online, but what we’re doing should barely register as communication. And I very much include HN in this.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#59

Post by fragmede »

archagon wrote: post #58

Upvote-based, threaded discussions are not conversations and are severely lacking in nutritional value. They’re popular because they require little commitment and give you a quick dopamine hit. Real conversations happen on forums with linear discussions and are much better suited for community building and the exchange of ideas. Alas, they require a lot more work and we’ve gotten lazy. We all think we’re talking to e…

What's worse, is that a threaded conversation starts to get very skinny and look like an argument, so even if you do have one, it doesn't look good.

Re: Ask HN: What is a HN unpopular opinion that you hold?

#60

Post by meristohm »

Life on earth was healthier before we enslaved other animals (not the symbiotic relationships with early canids, but when we started hanging and penning) and generally started using extra-human energy sources to do things for us.

I've been watching recent Nature episodes on PBS with my family (as I did in childhood, too), and the other primates, let's just say the lowland gorillas, lead enviable lives without deforesting or otherwise spoiling their home (we're doing that, sadly). We could lead meaningful, engaging lives following the old ways again, and everything we used and made would either decompose safely back into the environment or stay awhile longer as landmarks (earthworks and shaped stones, for example). I don't know how most of the HN participants think about this, but judging by the new and popular topics we as a subgroup aren't putting much effort into activism towards a seasonally-nomadic hunter-gatherer culture.

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