101–110 of 190 posts
I think this article overestimates how much the average person knows about tech. People know who Musk, Bezos, and Gates are, but hardly anyone outside of tech knows who Collison is. Most don't know much about VC funding either, but they certainly can see when products have become too smart to the point where they get needlessly complicated.
I can't actually think of a single piece of tech made in the past ten years that has improved my life, at least not without large downsides. There's some embedded stuff, like lane assist or adaptive cruise control in my car, that I like, but the package as a whole... not really much of an improvement. It's not really bad as such that the tech industry want to attempt to make a smart home, or add software to a product…
Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them. I posit that the reasons are - the need for conservatism and slowing down progress is inherent in people. Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. Its the same mode of opposition, people just don't like chaotic progress. - people who have good jobs…
That's a weirdly optimistic view of technology. Specially the comparison to homophobia and racism. Yes, tech has solved people's basic but real needs for communication, banking, entertainment, etc. Then after a certain level, without aggressive dark patterns, people's needs for tech were basically met. No one needed social media, we needed social networks . No one needed inescapable "algorithms"¹ besides the ones try…
Without social media you would have corners of culture getting stuck on whatever ideas they had from 2000 years ago. With social media these stale ideas get beaten by good ones.
so it doesn't give people confidence that the tech industry is doing anything that benefits the average person; mostly they're just looking to make as much $$ as possible and screw everything else, including our planet's future. basically Gordon Gekko's of the 21st Century.
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Why does it have to exclusively hurt upper middle class? I’m not sure why you added that constraint. Edit: I do enjoy Noah Smith and neoliberalism. Good on you for getting it right.
For the record I used to read noahpinion all the time. Then I developed critical thinking skills. It’s not a compliment that it was so easy for me to recognize you as a reader of his. You should learn how to think for yourself.
I still check his blog occasionally to see what the tech elite / alphabet boys want me to think. It’s become surprisingly easy to deduce their strategy.
Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them. I posit that the reasons are - the need for conservatism and slowing down progress is inherent in people. Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. Its the same mode of opposition, people just don't like chaotic progress. - people who have good jobs…
Wut? None of those 3 things are like the others. This is gibberish.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does it have to exclusively hurt upper middle class? I’m not sure why you added that constraint. Edit: I do enjoy Noah Smith and neoliberalism. Good on you for getting it right.
“Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them.” For the record I used to read noahpinion all the time. Then I developed critical thinking skills. It’s not a compliment that it was so easy for me to recognize you as a reader of his. You should learn how to think for yourself. I still check his blog occasionally to see what the tech elit…
Name an industry anyone likes, aside from the money they might be making off it. They're all now hated for the same reasons, caused by the same, scarily small, group of people.
I'd say farming. Not agriculture in general, Monsanto is one of the most hated companies, so is John Deere, and farmers hate them too, but the ones working on the field, preferably crops over livestock. I think that farmers are somehow immune despite having their fair share of evil because we all understand that without them, we would all die.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them.” For the record I used to read noahpinion all the time. Then I developed critical thinking skills. It’s not a compliment that it was so easy for me to recognize you as a reader of his. You should learn how to think for yourself. I still check his blog occasionally to see what the tech elit…
You read obvious sarcasm as earnest. And you didn’t answer a question I asked. And you just hurled some insults.
I did answer your question. Are you saying the above quote is sarcasm?
You asked why I highlighted techs impact on the upper middle class. It’s because you singled them out as the primary opponents of tech multiple times.
I didn’t use any insults at all. Where are you seeing insults? I’m giving you valuable advice.
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The problem isn't capitalism, well it's not JUST capitalism. If you give any group of individuals that level of wealth control, the same pattern repeats. They can be shareholders, board directors, or commissars or general secretaries of the people's party, a prince or a duke, or the first citizen. It doesn't matter, all you need to replicate the same problems is concentration of wealth and power and the ability to di…
Indeed. It's just that capitalism produces immense concentrations of wealth as a core feature of the system.
So you're going to need a more accurate diagnosis than simply capitalism