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Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

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Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#41

Post by jansan »

mettamage wrote: post #24

My gripe with titles like this is that problems as a class are much bigger than technical problems. For example: Many people on HN seems to have dating problems. Whenever an article on dating is in the front page, I see those issues in the comments. In most cases, that class of problem requires people to work on themselves. Online dating for sure as hell isn’t solving it. Some of my comments outlined how to solve dat…

Online dating could probably help a lot if it was optimized for actually providing a solution instead of maximizing profit. If these services actually manage to find a matching long-term partner, they will lose two customers.

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#42

Post by kindkang2024 »

bsenftner wrote: post #38
kindkang2024 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. Before we are so eager to solve the problems, we better pinpoint how the problems were introduced and exacerbated. In the US, there are conflicts between illegal immigration and local communities, or conflicts between BLM and ALM. Especially the latter one, which I as an ordinary non-American cannot understand why ALM was abandoned like SHIT in the end. I do not know that initially aimed to advocate…

The All Live Matter "movement" is constructed, engineered and financed by big money white supremacy as a mechanism to shut down all discussions other than theirs.

Thank God.I luckily labeled the advocacy using 4 words instead of 3, “AllLivesMatterWorld” advocating for Peace worldwide.

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#43

Post by dredmorbius »

croes wrote: post #33
xyzzy123 wrote: post #6

I feel like the framing in the article is wrong. Tech startups are desperately searching for solutions that will generate value. When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc. Everything will be thrown at the wall to see what sticks. The…

You mean Tech startups are desperately searching for buzz words that will generate profit.

s/profit/increase in valuation/

For most of the startup ecosystem, profits are less a goal than liquidity event. Often that comes in the form of an acqui-hire, monopoly buying out competition, or a technology transfer.

Profits are a distant focus, though remaining ahead of run rate has merits.

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#45

Post by mettamage »

jansan wrote: post #41
mettamage wrote: post #24

My gripe with titles like this is that problems as a class are much bigger than technical problems. For example: Many people on HN seems to have dating problems. Whenever an article on dating is in the front page, I see those issues in the comments. In most cases, that class of problem requires people to work on themselves. Online dating for sure as hell isn’t solving it. Some of my comments outlined how to solve dat…

Online dating could probably help a lot if it was optimized for actually providing a solution instead of maximizing profit. If these services actually manage to find a matching long-term partner, they will lose two customers.

There’s a Dutch app that’s pretty good (it’s called Breeze). Many tech orgs do find a good solution but they are usually not blitz scaling

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#47

Post by pfdietz »

its_bbq wrote: post #16

And the not asked often enough corollary: just because there exists a technical solution to a problem, does that mean it's the right solution?

I often see objections to technical solutions because they have the gall to actually solve a problem, but do so in a way that the objector doesn't want. If a problem is seen as a way to force a particular solution someone wants for other reasons, alternative solutions are threats.

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#48

Post by thaumasiotes »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #14
thaumasiotes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc. Have you read anything from the early 20th century? This is a noticeable theme in e.g. stories set in the mythos of Conan the Barbarian or the Wizard of Oz. "Radium" is treated as essentia…

I don't think "read Conan the Barbarian" is the main takeaway of that, though I'm sure "rays" was a trope in fiction. Quack "radioactive medicines" actually happened to people. Product darwinism and actual customer darwinism. See, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_quackery https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/radioa... https://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/for-students/radium/ https://…

> though I'm sure "rays" was a trope in fiction

No, seriously, "radium".

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#49

Post by jjk166 »

Not all problems have technical fixes, but all fixes are technical. Technology is the application of knowledge to solve problems. Some technologies fall outside of what typically comes to mind when the word is brought up, for example languages and currency and tax codes are all technologies. Anything that actually fixes a problem is going to wind up being technical. There is a long and ever growing list of problems solved by technology. It is arguably the hallmark of our species to look for technical solutions to problems, and we will continue to do so until we go extinct.

There are problems that don't have solutions. Some people want to do A, some people want to do B, you can not do both, and doing neither will piss off everyone - no matter what someone is going to be unhappy. You might find better "solutions" or solve adjacent problems, like "we'll do A today and B tomorrow" but the core issue is intractable. It is the human condition that we will always have some such problems, but they are few and generally affect the upper levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. For the lower level stuff - typically anything involving material needs - technical solutions exist.

The problem with this article and the many others like it is that it fails to distinguish between the search for genuine technical solutions to problems and tech bros proposing bad technical solutions to problems. That a problem theoretically has a technical solution obviously does not mean your slight twist on a note taking app is such a solution. Why these narratives are pushed is reasonably easy to understand - it boosts the ego of the person who developed the proposed "solution" and asserts a value of the product to both potential customers and investors. In particular, the phenomenon is heavily fueled by entrepreneurs with little understanding of the underlying problem pitching solutions to investors who have equally little understanding of the underlying problem.

I'm fine with calling out dumb ideas, but going further to this narrative of "some proposed technical fixes wouldn't work therefore technical fixes don't work and anyone looking for a technical fix is delusional" leads to a defeatist attitude. For every solvable problem a technical solution does exist, it's just really unlikely you'll stumble upon such a solution after watching a few hours of videos on the latest tech fad.

Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?

#50

Post by jjk166 »

_cenw wrote: post #9
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #7

It sort of bugs me when people who claim that a problem cannot be solved with technology act like that problem was caused by technology. You get both or neither, you can't have just one.

Of course you can. Technology can irreversibly change societies. Do you have a technical solution to the potential for mutually assured destruction through nuclear weapons?

Mutually assured destruction is a technical solution - when it is suicidal for either side to attack each other (because of a large and robust nuclear arsenal), both can be confident the other won't attack.

There are potentially other technical solutions. Anti-ballistic missile systems could make nuclear strikes non viable, as could more advanced defenses. One could imagine weapons designed to remotely pre-detonate nuclear weapons making them more dangerous to possess than to use. You could by subterfuge render your adversary's nuclear capabilities inoperable. You could find technical solutions to the issues that make the countries adversaries in the first place, for example eliminating dependence on a resource you compete over. You could spread propaganda to install a friendly government.

There could be and almost certainly are even better technical solutions that I don't know, and perhaps no one currently knows. Every problem ever solved was at some point unsolved.

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