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6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#71

Post by copperx »

bboygravity wrote: post #58
ryandrake wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to love computers and software. When the next great thing came out, I’d be an enthusiastic early adopter, and enjoyed the new powers the technology gave me. Now, whenever something new comes out, my first thought is: “how is this thing going to suck up my personal data and monetize me?” And my second thought is “how is this going to wreck some part of life and/or humanity and turn it into profits for the rich?…

It's interesting to read this from a market research perspective. I have a very similar opinion and also consider(ed) myself an early adopter. This may just mean that early adopters are now signaliing that they are getting bored with software/tech and the rest of the market may soon follow that opinion.

Maybe it means they're not bored with what tech gives them right now.

In the past we adopted new startups such as JustinTV, YouTube, and Instagram because they gave us something we didn't have front and center. Live streaming, video, and stylized photos. Now every social network offers all kinds of media and in different engagement foemats, and the algorithms keep us entertained enough. There's not a whole lot of reasons to adopt something new, unless it's even more addictive.

Maybe the reign of the incumbent social networks will last much, much longer than we initially expected.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#72

Post by crucialfelix »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #15
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

> That viral quote that was making the rounds, "I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes." We developed machines that would do your laundry and dishes decades ago. The current trend is to make them less and less functional over time.

The focus of the joke is on the automation of creative work. The joy is in the doing. It's nonsensical to just push a button to pretend to do creative work (generating art).

Laundry and dishes is a standin for all things that technology does very well and we appreciate it for doing that for us.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#74

Post by m463 »

ryandrake wrote: post #46
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

I used to love computers and software. When the next great thing came out, I’d be an enthusiastic early adopter, and enjoyed the new powers the technology gave me. Now, whenever something new comes out, my first thought is: “how is this thing going to suck up my personal data and monetize me?” And my second thought is “how is this going to wreck some part of life and/or humanity and turn it into profits for the rich?…

That is how I felt. Computers made everyone's life better!

My opinion is that "the big sellout" happened when apple introduced the iphone and the apple app store.

and it basically came down to a couple nuances in their policies...

#1 apps have unfettered network access

#2 apple would never approve security apps like a firewall (because #1)

and when a big player sets an example, it normalizes the situation for everyone else.

I think it was seen (or sold) as "advertising will fund everything" just like television, radio and print advertising did in the past.

Except the old advertising was one-way. Advertising today means ubiquitous surveillance and dossier building on every person on the planet.

It's been ~ 17 years of this iphone BS, and now behavior is creeping into every app, device and platform. Look at microsoft breaking new ground in appalling behavior with each software update.

Thank goodness for linux, open software, open hardware and people coming up with great hacks all the time.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#75

Post by mordae »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #11
tmpz22 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology innovation's highest priority has always been to move money from the middle class to the ownership class. Why so many people assume altruistic outcomes is beyond me. Why so many people see any other outcome of OpenAI then increased income inequality is beyond me.

That's pretty demonstrably not true, historically. The explosion of the middle class of the 20th century was because technology still required a huge amount of labor, but it increased productivity to the point where that labor could live much more comfortably on their wages.

There was a period of time when to get the highest ROI you had a factory built, you hired a bunch of people and had them make and sell washing machines, fridges and vacuums.

Since everybody now has a washing machine, fridge and vacuum, the profits fell and the manufacturing just barely sustains itself.

Since the founders / owners / shareholders extracted all excess profits, the companies became brittle in crises, causing them to buy each other until there is just about 1 per continent, possibly 1 in the whole world.

The only way to jack up prices until then, barred burying the whole planet under a pile of planned obsolescence electronics garbage, is to invent new ways to introduce scarcity. Like gating certain features behind a subscription fee.

And temporarily also to lay off as many people as possible, replacing them with automation.

Please elucidate how do you envision next win-win capitalism-based boom. Time savings to everyone have been driving the last one. The only area with a low-hanging time-saving fruit remaining is time on job. Which is exactly the time capitalism seeks to maximize for workers.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#76

Post by roenxi »

disqard wrote: post #50
roenxi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something can be a joke and still be worth taking seriously. In this case, the joke is misleading on an important topic - the existence of AI changes economic realities but has no bearing on how humans spend their leisure time, or how much of that leisure time they have. In fact, it probably will increase the amount of leisure time available on net since it is freeing us up as a species from needing to do a bunch of…

> "freeing us up as a species from needing to do a bunch of artistic and creative chores." Would you please clarify something? You're saying that we need to be freed from "artistic and creative chores" -- so that we can be free to do what? For me personally, the highest-quality leisure I can think of is to follow creative pursuits and hone my artistic abilities (e.g. playing a musical instrument, making something wit…

Free to do whatever you like. If you want to sit around playing musical instruments in your spare time nothing is stopping you.

We've had superhuman chess AI for decades and that hasn't stopped anyone playing chess. But if I want to review a game showcasing the highest level of chess play I wouldn't turn to human games. Similarly, sooner or later, if I want a specific picture of something I'm not going to be wasting the time of an artist to get it.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#77

Post by [deleted] »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

[deleted]

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#78

Post by Muromec »

yetihehe wrote: post #62
shiroiushi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sure don't see it. When I look at how fast FOSS advanced between the late 90s and the mid 00s, and compare to after the '08 meltdown, it doesn't look the same at all.

When you have small domain, any progress can be seen as big. Now when you have many millions of lines in linux kernel, half a million new lines is "oh, just another module". The same with whole foss domain. It's so big now that progress is seen as slow. Comparing Blender now to Blender in 2014 will show you how big progress we still make, just as an example.

Another module in linux isn’t half a million of lines. A whole new class of hardware with all the drivers may be.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#79

Post by fiachamp »

wnc3141 wrote: post #42
bluefirebrand wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Productivity has been increasing even more rapidly, but the middle class is collapsing, so I'm skeptical that these two things are very strongly related

A great many of our problems (in much of the developed world to varying extent) stem from just this. Below: a chart of "share of gross national income from wages", read this as "Labor Share of Income." https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W270RE1A156NBEA

That share of income from wages started its downward trajectory in 1971, when the US removed the gold standard and money-printing replaced hard money. The result was a man-manipulated interest rate fueled economy. Low interest rates benefit existing asset holders the most since they most definitively increase asset prices. Think about the simplest discounted cashflow, a perpetuity. When you change the discount rate r from 4% to 1%, the perpetuity value increases by 4x.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#80

Post by tayo42 »

keiferski wrote: post #61

It would be interesting if someone analyzed the “California communication style” and its effects on the startup industry. As someone that grew up on the East Coast, I often notice how the communication style on the West Coast is much less confrontational and more “everything is awesome”, which I think leads to the sort of fake enthusiasm the author grew tired of projecting. Of course, there’s no lack of hype and BS i…

Everyone in silicon valley is a transplant.
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