Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What could have been

coppolaemilio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 127 posts

Re: What could have been

#51

Post by _carbyau_ »

Gigachad wrote: post #36
wnc3141 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you forgot IoT

IoT wasn't exactly a waste of money. If anything, the problem was that companies didn't spend enough doing it properly or securely. People genuinely do want their security cameras online with an app they can view away from home. It just needs to be done securely and privately.

I want a Wireguard-like solution - preferably with an open source Home Assistant plugin - rather than yet-another-subscriber-lockin-on-company-servers.

Investors want otherwise.

Re: What could have been

#53

Post by janalsncm »

Maybe the epitome of shoving AI into everything is Gemini showing up in my Gmail to help me write (which I do not need) but their spam filters still allowing obvious phishing emails through.

I understand organizationally how this happens, and the incentives that build such a monstrosity but it’s still objectively a shame.

Re: What could have been

#54

Post by janalsncm »

Philpax wrote: post #33
busterarm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hacker News may be hosted as part of the Y Combinator website, but as the name suggests, the primary audience is hackers, not entrepreneurs. Your answer is good, but could have done without the condescension.

Reading the original context, missiles don’t even make sense. I agree condescension isn’t helpful though.

Re: What could have been

#55

Post by stavros »

wavemode wrote: post #43

> What could have been if instead of spending so much energy and resources on developing “AI features” we focused on making our existing technology better? This is a bit like the question "what if we spent our time developing technology to help people rather than developing weapons for war?" The answer is that, the only reason you were able to get so many people working on the same thing at once, was because of the p…

> But, those homes wouldn't still be around and remembered millenia later.

Yes, but they'd have homes. Who's to say if a massive monument is better than ten thousand happy families?

Re: What could have been

#56

Post by bji9jhff »

wavemode wrote: post #43

> What could have been if instead of spending so much energy and resources on developing “AI features” we focused on making our existing technology better? This is a bit like the question "what if we spent our time developing technology to help people rather than developing weapons for war?" The answer is that, the only reason you were able to get so many people working on the same thing at once, was because of the p…

> instead of building the Great Pyramids, those thousands of workers (likely slaves) could have all individually spent that time building homes for their families. But, those homes wouldn't still be around and remembered millenia later.

They would have been better off. Those pyramids are epitomes of white elephants.

Re: What could have been

#58

Post by jibal »

Philpax wrote: post #46
busterarm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

By all means; I also work at a start-up. That doesn't mean that everyone here does, or is interested in doing so, or will have the necessary background. All I ask of you is to present information in the spirit of the XKCD 10,000: https://xkcd.com/1053/

perfect

Re: What could have been

#59

Post by nicoburns »

busterarm wrote: post #30
nicoburns wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Green energy, including generation, but also storage, transmission, ev chargers, smart grid technology, etc would be the obvious thing to invest in that I would expect to have a much higher payoff.

Are they really? Is this one of those "just because people say so" beliefs? The countries adopting these the most are declining economies. It's places that are looking for something to do after there's no more oil left to drill up and export. You know where fossil fuel use is booming? Emerging (e.g., growing) economies. Future scarcity of such resources will only make them more valuable and more profitable. Yes, this…

Isn't it China that adopting renewable more rapidly than anywhere else and also has a booming economy? Although they're also investing in non-renewable energy sources.

My understanding is that "green" investment portfolios which were intended as "ethics over return on investment" have actually outperformed petrochemical stocks for years now, and it's more ideology than economics that's preventing further investment (hence why you see so much renewable energy in Texas which is famously money driven)

Re: What could have been

#60

Post by recursive »

janalsncm wrote: post #54
Philpax wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News may be hosted as part of the Y Combinator website, but as the name suggests, the primary audience is hackers, not entrepreneurs. Your answer is good, but could have done without the condescension.

Reading the original context, missiles don’t even make sense. I agree condescension isn’t helpful though.

That's probably how the poster knew it was wrong.
Post reply on HN