We've made the world too complicated • Hacker News Board

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#61

Post by Quarrelsome » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:51 AM UTC

dnnddidiej wrote: post #47

Quarrelsome wrote: post #43

this just sounds like an engineer realising for the first time that the world has more complexity to it than anyone is capable of learning in their lifetime. You always have to take _some_ things on trust, its just about choosing where you place that trust. Personally, I trust food vendors, I just close my eyes and point at the menu, instead of thinking about what I want to eat. I trust hardware and managed software…

To me they are saying more than that. They are saying we have created a world out of tune with outselves. We don't know what we even want but we think it is progress.

We could say the same for the industrial revolution that is a point in the past for all of us.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#62

Post by emsign » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:57 AM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #2

Everything has always been "too complicated", it's the default state of the natural world. Just imagine the baffling profusion of problems that occur from questions like "is that the same plant", or "is that berry safe to eat", or "which kind of sickness is everyone catching and which thing is going to help?" The complexity never went away, we simply made ways to manage it so that it's not seen as often. So now we do…

We used to have gods of several domains each for taking up the blame for specific and (back then) inexplainable events. It at least gave the people closure or blueprints for action in order to appease them. Doesn't matter if it really had an effect.

But since naturalism whichbset out to explain phenomena with science and logic doesn't give the same kind of closure and it leaves many confused and overwhelmed. Nobody understands everything, nobody is an expert in everything.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#63

Post by specproc » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:59 AM UTC

InfiniteAscent wrote: post #58

> I used to want to do many things. Make great art, build great machines, solve important issues. Another pretentious man who thinks he could be a great artist. Great artists are born artists, and they devote 100% of the time and cognitive resources that society allows them to their art. They have no choice, it’s vital for them. Jack of all trades, master of none. If you are an engineer and you truly love art, do art…

> Jack of all trades, master of none..

"..But sometimes better than a master of one", is the oft-forgotten coda. I'm mediocre at _a lot_ of stuff, and love it. Wouldn't run my life any other way, and it's far too late to change.

I'm, of course, in awe of folks who dedicate their lives to a single craft, but there's a rich, interesting, and productive life out there for us dabblers.

Different strokes for different folks, aye.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#64

Post by shadowgovt » Sat, May 16, 2026, 12:15 PM UTC

> But to do so would leave you alone and a lunatic.

Here's the thing though, I know quite a few people who have done this. It's not particularly easy (after all, most of the complexity of the modern world is a fabric that enables a level of sheer convenience unseen by previous generations). It requires a lot of planning day to day, a willingness to accept setbacks the likes of which you just don't see in a comfortable apartment in an urban environment very often, and the resilience to pick up and keep going.

But if one wants to live that way there are places to do so and you can learn how. I had a colleague who grew up in a yurt and as soon as they had saved up a comfortable nest egg in tech they moved right back into that life. I know someone who lives off the grid in the outer Banks, maintains his own boat and makes his living doing transportation for his neighbors and repair jobs.

I don't disagree with the author and I have felt the stress they have felt, but if they're feeling the need to snap their laptop in half it may just be time to transition to a way of living for them that doesn't require being on the laptop all the time. I suspect they will find it to be much preferable. Or they won't, but if they don't at least the adventure was worth it.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#65

Post by dnnddidiej » Sat, May 16, 2026, 12:37 PM UTC

Quarrelsome wrote: post #61

dnnddidiej wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me they are saying more than that. They are saying we have created a world out of tune with outselves. We don't know what we even want but we think it is progress.

We could say the same for the industrial revolution that is a point in the past for all of us.

I think they are including the whole stack. Even the written word!

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#66

Post by ladax72707 » Sat, May 16, 2026, 1:15 PM UTC

I don't want to downplay the argument, and more importantly - the author's feelings about the topic, but I'd suggest (unsolicited, sorry) the author take some hobbies away from the screen, find a decent friend or two and spend more time with them, and stop or at least reduce the time spent reading news/twitter/whatever.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#67

Post by _heimdall » Sat, May 16, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #33

_heimdall wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an absurd strawman. Effectively all of modern history had no modern medicine, though that doesn't mean there weren't treatments and remedies for ailments. Drinking rain water is a pretty damn good alternative to drinking city water if you have the option, remember that we all poop in the city water before they try to get it all back out and bleach it. Welfare should never be a goal, its a sign that something…

That’s not how city water works.

Correct me where I was wrong then My understanding is that sewage, including toilet waste, goes through the sewer system to a treatment facility, and is cleaned as best they can including using amounts to bleach as part of the process.

That obviously isn't a complete detail of how it works, but what is inaccurate?

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#68

Post by _heimdall » Sat, May 16, 2026, 1:28 PM UTC

whatisthiseven wrote: post #40

scotty79 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> remember that we all poop in the city water before they try to get it all back out and bleach it Is there any place in the developed world that treats mixing sewage into your water source as a viable strategy of providing municipal water?

Yes, there have been standards for years already. It was proven in s US city some time ago when it faced a bad drought. Las Vegas is a 100% closed loop system. All grey water is recycled back into Lake Mead fur reuse. Modern sewage treatment is a modern miracle.

It is a modern miracle, though the miracle is in part that we can now drink poop water.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#69

Post by GeoAtreides » Sat, May 16, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

> I'm writing this with technology I will never fully understand

that's on you. It takes just a bit of effort, and I suppose time, to have a very good idea of what happens, at all levels, between the moment i had this comment in mind and you the reader conceptualizing it in your mind. Are some details missing? Sure. We still don't know where thoughts come from and I, personally, don't have the mathematically training to understand the quantum mechanics involved in PNP junction, for example. I have never seen a verilog program... but I know it exists and what it does. Nor can I tell you the _implementation_ details of firing high powered lasers at tin droplets to generate uv-rays flashes, but I know it exists and why.

Yes, I can not recreate by myself our current civilization, or even the modern tech stack. It doesn't mean I don't understand how it works. There are no places in my mental map with 'hic sunt dracones'.

>I want to never pay with money or read a written word again

not wanting to read might explain why the author doesn't understand the world they are living in

>Our internal intuition about right and wrong seems to leave us at an early age.

good. a child moral compass is neither, and as we grow up and learn, we develop better, more complex ethical framework, against our base instincts and animal intuition.

>Maybe our greatest gift to the world is to do as little as possible. To look at the birds, feel the wind and the water in our own hands, and ... nothing more. Eat when we are hungry, laugh when we are happy, cry when we are empty.

a life unexamined is not worth living

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#70

Post by add-sub-mul-div » Sat, May 16, 2026, 3:06 PM UTC

j_maffe wrote: post #38

> I'm writing this with technology I will never fully understand in a building with rooms I can never enter, living in a country dictated by laws I can't control. We spend the majority of our waking hours and lives in an abstract world of compressed life. The moment I walk through my door I'm in a zoning area on a city-owned sidewalk, flanked by ugly metallic monsters, floating through a sea of strangers. This has be…

I hate this genre of comment. Sometimes the pace or tenor of something that's always been around quickens or otherwise causes new, qualitative change that we do need to discuss and reckon with.