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

The Who Cares Era

dansinker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 765 posts

Re: The Who Cares Era

#641

Post by Too »

wiseowise wrote: post #234
biophysboy wrote: post #35

I think people right now are way too willing to surrender their own judgment. AI is an example of this, but there are many others: restaurant ratings, movie metascores, political polls, college rankings, engagement metrics, etc. These kinds of data should be a part of decision making, but not all of it. Otherwise, you get this passive, "who cares" mentality that the author describes.

What do you base your decision on if not data?

The only thing worse than data is fake data.

Finding the reliable sources of data or enough metadata and experience to make your own judgement is the key skill today.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#642

Post by chipsrafferty »

Balgair wrote: post #237
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s two things going on: 1. People are embracing the fact that there is no possible objective direction for society 2. People a rejecting the directions they were told to prioritize (education, family, religion etc…) because none have predictable outcomes As function of both, there’s no consistent or coherent philosophical for people to align to. In the past, the percentage of the population that was forced to al…

> 1. People are embracing the fact that there is no possible objective direction for society I saw one on twitter the other day and was struck by it's take: "in the 1900s, it was common to dream of the 21st century. when was the last time you heard talk of a 22nd century? it's like we don't believe we're going to make it anymore, but to endure, we MUST dream of futures worth suffering for. please, dare dream of a 22n…

This is the most childish take ever.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#643

Post by dostick »

The article puts it way too softly by calling it “mediocrity”. I’d like to see mediocrity to return, it’s like middle class. Mediocrity means someone tried their best but they are not talented or skilled enough. People not trying and don’t care means hitting the bottom. There’s nothing below that.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#644

Post by saubeidl »

WalterBright wrote: post #622
saubeidl wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite facing numerous challenges, including political instability and external pressures, the Yugoslav economy achieved significant growth and modernization during its existence, with a particularly strong emphasis on education, health care, and social welfare I'm not sure we're reading the same article then. Here's some archive footage from 60's Yugoslavia for your reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXr5…

You need bricks to make a house. Where are you going to get the bricks from? You need lumber to build a stick frame house. How are you going to saw the lumber? Where are you getting the steel for the saws? Where are you getting the nails from? Those all come from economic powerhouses. The steps from mud huts to modern buildings came from economic powerhouses.

All of those were made in highly industrialized Yugoslavia. Maybe they are an economic powerhouse by your definition then?

Re: The Who Cares Era

#645

Post by saubeidl »

WalterBright wrote: post #625
ryandrake wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see any mud huts in that article.

Yugoslavia was getting substantial foreign aid money. That means their economy could not sustain their standard of living.

I would argue the foreign aid was part of their economic strategy - geopolitically coercing the two Cold War blocks was a major industry :-)

Re: The Who Cares Era

#646

Post by saubeidl »

nradov wrote: post #528
saubeidl wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

When a "problem" has no solution then it's not actually a problem, just a fact to be accepted. Like gravity. There's nothing wrong with worker owned cooperatives, but for anything that requires significant capital you have to run things the way that capital owners want. And large-scale economic central planning where governments allocate capital has been an abject failure everywhere it has been tried, so don't insult…

What you're proposing, my friend, is called ideological blindness.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#647

Post by xnx »

0_____0 wrote: post #5

I was just kvetching about this to my partner over breakfast. Not exactly, but a parallel observation, that a lot of people are just kind of shit at their jobs. The utility tech who turned my tiny gas leak into a larger gas leak and left. The buildings around me that take the better part of a decade to build (really? A parking garage takes six years?) Cops who have decided it's their job to do as little as possible.…

Nothing that all of these examples are public sector monopolies or related (e.g. permitting). Being bad at your job definitely exists in the private sector, but there are competitive forces that work against it.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#648

Post by saubeidl »

WalterBright wrote: post #632
saubeidl wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As somebody who's from there, no, they don't.

Why did you leave?

Because it was destroyed by right-wing extremists in the 90s, funded by Western capitalists that were scared it would show the world a viable alternative on how to run an economy

Re: The Who Cares Era

#649

Post by saubeidl »

nradov wrote: post #525
saubeidl wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a place where people lived good lives and had plenty of opportunities to succeed, along with free education and healthcare. I'm kind of tired of being an economic powerhouse where most people live in misery.

Yugoslavia also had severe political repression, with peace between the provinces only maintained by a (near) dictator with a cult of personality. Their economy and standard of living was mediocre at best, and only even possible within a limited geopolitical context where they sat between competing superpowers. It wouldn't be possible to create something like Yugoslavia today. Stupid to even try.

I'd argue the repression of reactionaries was part of the secret sauce that made it work so well. We saw what happened when they were loosened in the 90s.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#650

Post by drw85 »

BrenBarn wrote: post #613
tolerance wrote: post #123

Where I think that pieces like this fall short at are identifying what they think people should "care" about and why these things matter. For example, * Who cares that those newspapers ran AI-generated reading lists when the actual people who represent the newspapers wouldn't actually be the ones recommending the books anyway ? (People who make things that you read aren't reading themselves.) * Why should people care…

I think that's only part of the story. Another part is what are you caring about or doing instead. People don't have to care about those things, but what are they doing with their time instead? "Funny fails" videos and getting french fries delivered? Part of the point is that you have to do something with your time, it's just that now people spend their time doing stuff they don't care about, which is sad. You don't…

That's a very good point. I know quite some people that have absolutely no interests. All they do is play games all day. No a specific game that they really like, but any game that offers enough busy work to distract for a month or two. Aside from that maybe they watch some short form videos like you mentioned, when they eat their microwaved or ordered meal.

For some people now, i would be hard to summarise them. To describe them, other than 'plays games' or 'watches videos'. And you can tell something is missing, they're not happy, but distracted enough to not care.

Post reply on HN