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Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#281

Post by lazide »

malloryerik wrote: post #269
Quinner wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. One way to tell whether you're in an 80s house would be to look…

> If you missed a turn, god help you. People had lots and lots of paper maps. Every gas station had a rack of them. You'd probably have had a good spiral-bound one of your entire region in your car. Wrong turn? Just check the map and save God's help for later.

Eh, everyone I knew got lost and then tried to figure out where on the paper map they were while trying to not get into an accident.

GPS, you just wait a second for it to update and you barely miss a beat.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#282

Post by space_fountain »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #278

I've always wondered how much of this has to do with sweeping social changes that put people last. Your average worker 50 years ago came home to a clean house, a homecooked meal on the table and an expectation of stability (both at work and at home). To "win" at life, all the engineer would need to do was engineer things to the highest standard. Now, the average worker is competing with their spouse, competing with t…

I don't mean this as a call out, but just want to highlight that this was never the experience of the average worker. It might have once been the experience of the average white male worker, but really you'd need an econ degree to say with something like certainty and it certainly wasn't the experience for minorities in this country

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#283

Post by thehappypm »

metadat wrote: post #259
nanomonkey wrote: post #252

Speak for yourself. I feel like I have riches of new tech at my disposal. Currently have 10 gbs fiber internet for $45/month, in one second I can download the contents of my first hard drive. My laptop has 64gb of ram and 8tb of ssd. I don't even know what to do with that much compute as I mostly use Emacs and Firefox for everything. Meetings are completely online, so I no longer need to travel to visit other offices…

If you have the means, it's nice. Where is this mythical $45/mo. 10gbps fiber connect?

Starry in Boston is around this perf and cost

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#284

Post by guyzero »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

try to get your cancer treated in 1960 and let me know how much you like 2010

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#285

Post by mymythisisthis »

Quinner wrote: post #151
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. One way to tell whether you're in an 80s house would be to look…

"...reference books, encyclopedias, rolodexes, filing cabinets..." were all nicely curated. Today the signal to noise ratio is extremely bad.

It's more productive having somebody show you how to do something, than trying to learn it yourself. Perhaps in the 1980s when the economy was going better, it was easier to connect with people willing to share, teach, mentor. Perhaps people have been forced to be more competitive now. Also, cut back in education meant many programs have been cut.

We would not feel so stagnant if manufacturing was more of a thing in N. America. Lots more factories with lots more 3d printers, laser cutters, drone, robots would exist. If you needed to get your hands on some such tool, you'd only have to ask around. 3D printers didn't penetrate the home like desktop publishing did in the 1980s and 90s.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#286

Post by scarface74 »

tablespoon wrote: post #253
Quinner wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. One way to tell whether you're in an 80s house would be to look…

> 30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. Honestly, it seems like you're just picking some incremental o…

Saying you personally stopped using GPS when most people do is as akin to the old meme, “do people still watch TV? I haven’t watched TV in 10 years”.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#287

Post by dumpsterlid »

acjacobson wrote: post #174
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

I mostly agree, though I think there are differences you'd notice rather quickly (but nothing as big as moving from 1890 to 1950) If you removed all the screens you'd probably first notice what's missing as opposed to what's different. In many of today's homes you wouldn't see things like tape / record players, stereos, VCRs, telephones, books, maps, yellow pages, rolodexes, calendars - all of these having a digital…

Also, homes in the US are generally FAR better insulated than they used to be, especially windows.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#288

Post by nerdponx »

mymythisisthis wrote: post #285
Quinner wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 years ago in order to navigate somewhere you had to ask someone for directions and write down notes. If you missed a turn, god help you. We fundamentally move through the world vastly differently thanks to digital maps. Many people (and in a few years, the majority) are doing so in cars that use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. One way to tell whether you're in an 80s house would be to look…

"...reference books, encyclopedias, rolodexes, filing cabinets..." were all nicely curated. Today the signal to noise ratio is extremely bad. It's more productive having somebody show you how to do something, than trying to learn it yourself. Perhaps in the 1980s when the economy was going better, it was easier to connect with people willing to share, teach, mentor. Perhaps people have been forced to be more competit…

What is the point you're trying to make here? That somehow people were better off for having to spend hours thumbing through books instead of searching things on the Web?

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#289

Post by [deleted] »

oldsecondhand wrote: post #229
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal computers have become a distraction, like TV sets. People watching TV are generally not very productive.1 Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses".2 Not only do we now have a worse figurative opiate than TV in the form of today's www,3 we have the legalisation of literal opiates for the masses thanks to Purdue Pharma. 1 A plaintiff's lawyer specialising in class action securities f…

> Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses" No, that's religion.

[deleted]

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#290

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

oldsecondhand wrote: post #229
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal computers have become a distraction, like TV sets. People watching TV are generally not very productive.1 Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses".2 Not only do we now have a worse figurative opiate than TV in the form of today's www,3 we have the legalisation of literal opiates for the masses thanks to Purdue Pharma. 1 A plaintiff's lawyer specialising in class action securities f…

> Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses" No, that's religion.

That was only before TV. The expression originally referred to religion, but later referred to television. For example, see the citation provided to the July 15, 1957 issue of Time magazine.
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