71–80 of 212 posts
Put another way, while computers have made us more productive, the internet has made it much easier to not do our jobs while at work. I don't think it is a coincidence that the graph stops being as steep around 2005.
This article makes me think of the woodworker's dilemma. You might start working with cutting, planing, joining and finishing wood because you want to make a chair or end table, and you like the idea of learning to do it yourself, maybe saving some money, or at least getting some extra tools out of the process, and having some pride in your work. But before you know it, you've spent 4 years accumulating tools, but mo…
Eloquently put. I think the woodworkers dilemma is a thing from the dev perspective. But, that still doesn't deal with the software users' side. Why does a modern company need more people in accounting, HR, even management? Shouldn't the ability to email everyone, digitized forms and such make fewer people necessary to do the same job? If Mcdonalds invents a new sandwich maker that requires half as many cooks per bur…
The purpose of accounting is to prevent stealing, fraud, regulation violations and taxes. All which get harder the bigger you get.
The more of those people you have the more managers you need to oversee them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A few nits to pick as a woodworker: 1) You never save money building it yourself (at least not in comparison to a standard consumer option, like a chair or table from your local furniture store. This may hold up if you compare what you build to high-end hardwood furniture. But with the cost of tools, you're probably still losing money if this is just a hobby) 2) 90% of my enjoyment of woodworking is just being in my…
> You never save money building it yourself I agree, if what you want is a standard chair or table. But its common that I will want some piece of furniture that exactly fits some space or is otherwise unusual. For example, shelves that exactly fit my rooms. It does help that I have somewhat low standards for appearance, and am quite content building things out of cheap wood.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You never save money building it yourself I agree, if what you want is a standard chair or table. But its common that I will want some piece of furniture that exactly fits some space or is otherwise unusual. For example, shelves that exactly fit my rooms. It does help that I have somewhat low standards for appearance, and am quite content building things out of cheap wood.
You'd still probably be better off hiring a carpenter who already has the tools than doing it yourself. They can amortize the fixed costs over hundreds of projects.
(I'm assuming that we're talking about saving money in a way that counts your own time doing something you enjoy as free.)
This article makes me think of the woodworker's dilemma. You might start working with cutting, planing, joining and finishing wood because you want to make a chair or end table, and you like the idea of learning to do it yourself, maybe saving some money, or at least getting some extra tools out of the process, and having some pride in your work. But before you know it, you've spent 4 years accumulating tools, but mo…
This article makes me think of the woodworker's dilemma. You might start working with cutting, planing, joining and finishing wood because you want to make a chair or end table, and you like the idea of learning to do it yourself, maybe saving some money, or at least getting some extra tools out of the process, and having some pride in your work. But before you know it, you've spent 4 years accumulating tools, but mo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think that? It feels that the mid-term (e.g. 20-40 years) outlook for migration would include a large increase of migrant supply due to e.g. climate change issues in the "global south", so instead of competition for immigration it seems likely that places like US would be able to pick whatever kind of migrants they'd prefer to allow.
Yes, supply of immigrants will increase because of climate change, but I think it's important to understand the current structure of age distributions in the world. The US had a pretty large Millenial generation. Most other countries did not. Which means, we're not REALLY going to be feeling the need to take on immigrants for a while. But as boomers retire, and millenials move to replace them, the countries that didn…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For offices, non tech saavy places, my experience hints at the fact that computers are far from being a main factor. Software is not mastered even by people in charge of picking it. It changes all the time. Users are (might be different with the next gen) digital-first, also software design regressed a lot, as400 terminals were so damn fast and predictable. Now users have desks with various UI paradigms (2021 people…
The DB tracking is the primary benefit. Run a report on all of those paper templates. Look up papers filled out last Tuesday, or July 3rd for the past 10 years. The software only makes staff job easier because now they enter it once and they're done instead of pulling files and compiling reports as a manual process every time the boss needs something.
You will often find that management has no idea that they have extra people doing literally nothing. These data entry clerks have titles that represent a process so it's thought of as the person doing that job (and perhaps that glue process does run partially on their tacit knowledge). The only requirement was for reporting which their pointless task of data re-entry accomplishes. Not much serious thought was given to productivity really.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eloquently put. I think the woodworkers dilemma is a thing from the dev perspective. But, that still doesn't deal with the software users' side. Why does a modern company need more people in accounting, HR, even management? Shouldn't the ability to email everyone, digitized forms and such make fewer people necessary to do the same job? If Mcdonalds invents a new sandwich maker that requires half as many cooks per bur…
The purpose of HR is to protect from liability and regulation violations which gets harder the bigger the company The purpose of accounting is to prevent stealing, fraud, regulation violations and taxes. All which get harder the bigger you get. The more of those people you have the more managers you need to oversee them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For offices, non tech saavy places, my experience hints at the fact that computers are far from being a main factor. Software is not mastered even by people in charge of picking it. It changes all the time. Users are (might be different with the next gen) digital-first, also software design regressed a lot, as400 terminals were so damn fast and predictable. Now users have desks with various UI paradigms (2021 people…
The DB tracking is the primary benefit. Run a report on all of those paper templates. Look up papers filled out last Tuesday, or July 3rd for the past 10 years. The software only makes staff job easier because now they enter it once and they're done instead of pulling files and compiling reports as a manual process every time the boss needs something.