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Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#341

Post by ignoramous »

leipert wrote: post #334
puranjay wrote: post #184

The humble ball point pen. People forget how cumbersome and/or expensive it was to write before cheap ball point pens became a thing. You had to use fountain pens. The cheap ones leaked and were an absolute mess to carry around. The ones that didn't leak were expensive. I can now buy more pens for $100 than I'll ever use in years and just stash them everywhere I want

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get an idea how they look.

Not OP, but it is common in India for schools to ask kids to not use ball-points and use fountains instead.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#342

Post by kamakazizuru »

sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

I agree with pads & tampons being a great invention. Can we however please finally stop referring to "2nd and 3rd world" countries. Get on a plane - things are more similar than different in most parts of the world, stop perpetuating dated notions.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#343

Post by abecedarius »

lebuffon wrote: post #277

I think the concept (rather than an invention) of negative feedback is very important. By that I mean envisioning that a machine can change it's own behaviour. This seems to have not been understood with early steam engines. People had to manually control valves to operate the first steam engines used as pumps in the U.K. James Watt and Mathew Bolton realized that coupling the output to the steam control valve would…

Good idea, but there was feedback control in antiquity.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#344

Post by robbrown451 »

6nf wrote: post #314
etangent wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

now imagine being someone who dislikes being around lots of people, and especially dislikes being around city people...

Imagine you could move to a small farm town population 62

Yeah but some people enjoy being miserable, so simple solutions like that won't work. :)

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#345

Post by fudged71 »

kamakazizuru wrote: post #342
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

I agree with pads & tampons being a great invention. Can we however please finally stop referring to "2nd and 3rd world" countries. Get on a plane - things are more similar than different in most parts of the world, stop perpetuating dated notions.

On your last point: Having recently returned from rural africa where girls miss significant amount of school for lack of pads & tampons (still), I can't exactly agree with this sentiment.

Edit: if you care to read more or donate, check these out http://www.zanaafrica.org https://www.huruinternational.org

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#346

Post by AngryData »

leipert wrote: post #334
puranjay wrote: post #184

The humble ball point pen. People forget how cumbersome and/or expensive it was to write before cheap ball point pens became a thing. You had to use fountain pens. The cheap ones leaked and were an absolute mess to carry around. The ones that didn't leak were expensive. I can now buy more pens for $100 than I'll ever use in years and just stash them everywhere I want

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get an idea how they look.

In the US ive never used or even seen anyone use a fountain pen, although ive heard of enthusiasts for them here.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#347

Post by robbrown451 »

new2628 wrote: post #221
leoh wrote: post #21

It's not as simple as you'd like, but the little known Bosch-Haber process, which produces ammonia for farming, staved off mass famines and may be why many readers of HN are alive today.

Would the world be better or worse off without the population boom that resulted from the invention?

Better to whom? How do you define "better" if not relative to some entity able to appreciate the difference between good and bad?

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#348

Post by omarhaneef »

avian wrote: post #172
omarhaneef wrote: post #164

Ah, the problem is that modern inventions are really embedded in a practice and theory. The invention may be simple but the practice and theory are not. So I would put up soap as a contender. Simple, saves hundreds of thousands of life, prevents diseases and so forth. But soap, as an invention, is embedded in the modern practice of washing, which requires our modern knowledge of germs and diseases, as well as our mod…

"The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon." [1] Soap is not a modern invention and its usefulness in cleaning was recognized way before modern knowledge about diseases. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap#Ancient_Middle_East

I hope you see you’re making my point. Soap without the hygiene practices isn’t soap with hygiene practices. And those practices are predicated on a theory of germs
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