241–250 of 554 posts
I sometimes think of the internet as an alternative dimension: as mind space; it was Terra Nova and speculators rode in to grab the available real estate. But as the experience also showed us, there are maybe infinite mind spaces, and the job of anyone dissatisfied with the status quo is to open those new spaces where networks can be built around principles other than enshittification.
The title is a reference to a sketch from a UK show, That Mitchell and Webb Look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h242eDB84zY
Anyone who hasn’t seen this show - it is brilliant. Such clever satire. Dr Death is also a very apt take on modern technology https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Skl71urqKu0
For some people, paying the premium to jump the queue is the point. What they didn't forsee is what happens when everyone has wound up paying the premium, and the queue is now with you again. This is mostly Australian frequent flyers, when it was a high barrier to entry it conferred advantages and now Fly in Fly out work has commoditised club status, there is next to no boarding advantage, and no points flight availa…
> My fellow Australians all feel a bit shit about the introduction of tipping in paywave and food service. That's unaustralian. We have legally enforced minimum wages and penalty rates. Turn that feature off. I think non-Americans need to take a stand against this. Refuse all tipping. Its a slippery slope - I know these guys are underpaid but if you start tipping the wages will just drop and we're all worse off.
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> now Fly in Fly out work has commoditised club status, there is next to no boarding advantage Why would you want to be on the plane earlier than necessary? Only thing I can think of is better access to the overhead lockers, which fill up fast these days.
Less so the early boarding, but the priority baggage is nice, especially after long international flights. Getting on the flight 15 minutes early also beats dawdling in a slow moving like for 20. Lounge access is worth it alone! Especially on international connections!!
Airport food & coffee is expensive and often not very good. At least with lounge access, I get that subpar food & coffee for free plus somewhere to sit. With a family, that can save a significant chunk of money off the cost of a holiday.
For some people, paying the premium to jump the queue is the point. What they didn't forsee is what happens when everyone has wound up paying the premium, and the queue is now with you again. This is mostly Australian frequent flyers, when it was a high barrier to entry it conferred advantages and now Fly in Fly out work has commoditised club status, there is next to no boarding advantage, and no points flight availa…
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> make you comfortable while you exist I don't think there are many proponents of that type of ubi. The way, at least I, see ubi is absolute subsistence - with a right to earn above that without affecting your subsistence. IMHO something along UBI is needed for a democratized market economy - and I think the Scandinavian countries are the support for this claim.
During the depression this was done with a job guarantee. Instead of paying people to sit on their ass they paid people to build stuff like the Lincoln tunnel, which was preferable for them (and even for us, we still use that stuff). UBI is more like the grain dole which Roman Emperors used to temper mass unrest and "prove" their benevolence. It seems to be in vogue among tech moguls who cant distinguish between abje…
The main difference from then, however, is that it is difficult to give each man a showel to dig and each woman a kid to care for this time.
People need qualifications to operate heavy machinery, know regulations, etc. - we are not in 1934 anymore.
As such we also don't need 30% og the population in the farming sector.
I generally avoid George’s non-technical posts because they are… let’s say uninspired. But here is one that actually makes sense. Of course the self-reflection with who he otherwise praises and spends his time with will never set in, but at least others may take the time to look inward and do something differently. Something has to change. Even HN seems to have had an increase in sentiment like this in the past few y…
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> What they didn't forsee is what happens when everyone has wound up paying the premium, and the queue is now with you again Wouldn't the market purist argue that this just means the good is mispriced, and tickets should actually be what the price is with the premium added? What you really need is to just raise the prices of the tickets and the price to jump the queue?
The market purist might argue for a second-price auction for boarding order, where people board in the order of highest sealed bid for boarding order to lowest, but pay the amount bid by the person behind them in the sequence; or for "Paris Metro Pricing" where everyone being in the "priority" line results in a large fraction of them opting not to pay the premium for the next flight they take. Or they might think up…
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> For some people, paying the premium to jump the queue is the point. What they didn't forsee is what happens when everyone has wound up paying the premium, and the queue is now with you again There's a freedom that comes with not caring and just accepting I am last in the line. I don't pay the premium and I can sit and relax in the lobby while the sheep that paid wait in line. Only when the queue is nearly depleted…
Though, that too only works if it is not adopted by the majority :) The actual strategy is not that you are last, but that you choose to be part of the smallest group.
I think that in a world with no priority queueing, I would still not care about the only queue and show up at the gate at the last possible time.
Problems would arise if everyone behaved like me. You would have everyone showing last minute and chaos would be the result.
I wonder how the system would adapt to that.