Crazy New Ideas • Hacker News Board

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#411

Post by gustavo-fring » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

geebee wrote: post #388

Lots of comments already, but I'll chime on in. I realized this very late in life, but I have a test for when it's time to pay attention to a new technology. It's when technical people look at what seems like a groundbreaking idea, seem unimpressed, and say "couldn't you just _____", were the blank is filled with something a nontechnical person doesn't understand or considers very cumbersome. The web: couldn't you ju…

I absolutely agree with you that you can get insane mileage from improving the basic UIs of almost everything. It's sad how little attention we give to this stuff. I think that's what Jobs got and his imitators only imitate...a genuine concern for the user.

edited by me for content

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#412

Post by AbrahamParangi » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

qshaman wrote: post #237

He is an investor on this “crazy new idea” , I don’t believe him, he is just hustling his audience and trying to create hype about a product that is neither new nor competitive. People like Guido van Rossum , James Gosling , Bjarne Stroustrup , just to mention a few, have contributed way more to the field and have earned the respect of millions , you don’t see them hyping crappy startups for a few bucks (billions* )…

This is such an uncharitable read that I think it’s doing you a disservice.

I recommend imagining “what frame of mind or perspective would PG need to have to honestly believe what he’s saying?”

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#413

Post by stingrae » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

stephc_int13 wrote: post #396

suhail wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux has low market share, Apple won't let you on non-Apple hardware, and Windows has high fees to license in that way. The only path is the browser and most desktop apps are web apps. Feel free to read my post that goes deeper about our thinking: https://blog.mightyapp.com/mightys-secret-plan-to-invent-the...

>most desktop apps are web apps. Not yet.

for the average user, they are.

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#414

Post by boraoztunc » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

I wonder why Chrome's "Reading Mode" is not activated in Paul Graham's website. I really get used to read articles in Reader Mode, with the same style, background color, font size and without any other distracting elements of the page. His website font size is 13px, which is pretty small. So I copy+paste to Obsidian and read there.

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#415

Post by mcguire » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

de_keyboard wrote: post #127

I think "attacking" Crazy New Ideas is how we develop them, iron out the kinks and test our understanding. Criticism is an essential part of the journey from crazy new idea to accepted wisdom. However, the main problem I have with with this article is that it divides people into domain experts and the rest. This kind of black and white thinking is pervasive in PG essays, and always lead to a cute conclusion. You can…

Likewise, one of the best, most valuable, things that Albert Einstein did was to attack quantum mechanics in every way he could.

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#416

Post by mcguire » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

gman83 wrote: post #80

I guess because I think that Hyperloop is a really dumb idea I must be extremely envious. This smells like a way to justify ignoring difficult criticism. The critics are envious, they're trying to look sophisticated, they're not real domain experts, etc.

This is one of the major problems with PG's essays---he frequently assigns the worst possible motives to the people he disagrees with.

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#417

Post by nostrademons » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

qshaman wrote: post #237

He is an investor on this “crazy new idea” , I don’t believe him, he is just hustling his audience and trying to create hype about a product that is neither new nor competitive. People like Guido van Rossum , James Gosling , Bjarne Stroustrup , just to mention a few, have contributed way more to the field and have earned the respect of millions , you don’t see them hyping crappy startups for a few bucks (billions* )…

All of the people you mention are examples of the sort of folks the article mentions - domain experts with a "crazy new idea".

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#418

Post by kbutler » Thu, May 06, 2021, 4:59 PM UTC

Sounds like an essay to state Arthur C. Clarke's "First Law":

  When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

...which really just boils down to "it's probably possible".

Here are the three:

  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#419

Post by cptaj » Thu, May 06, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

The problem with this is selection bias. When you say you've studied the "history of ideas", what you've actually studied is the history of notorious ideas that worked.

You have nothing remotely resembling a proper sampling of ideas. The ones that failed simply get forgotten

Re: Crazy New Ideas

#420

Post by benp84 » Thu, May 06, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

These two parts seem contradictory:

> "Most implausible-sounding ideas are in fact bad and could be safely dismissed. But not when they're proposed by reasonable domain experts."

> "The lowest form of all is to dismiss an idea because of who proposed it."

I feel like he's prematurely dismissing the idea of dismissing an idea based on who proposes it because of who he's imagining doing (proposing) it, if that makes sense.