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

Nobody cares

grantslatton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

951–960 of 1001 posts

Re: Nobody cares

#951

Post by NeutralCrane »

Vampiero wrote: post #940
gizmo wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there are "reasonable justifications" for the shitty status quo, but that's kind of the point. Things are shitty for reasons but not for good reasons. The author points to Japan to illustrate that you do get measurably better results when people habitually try to do good work. We're not actually doomed to have crappy furniture, flimsy and buggy appliances, byzantine legal codes, ugly architecture, and hosti…

> The author points to Japan to illustrate that you do get measurably better results when people habitually try to do good work People in Japan habitually kill themselves because of their stupid work culture. Maybe that's not the best example.

Your rebuttal is dated. Suicide rates have been steadily declining in Japan and rising in the West to the point where suicides are actually less common in Japan than they are in the US currently. So perhaps it is a good example.

Re: Nobody cares

#952

Post by barnabee »

dspillett wrote: post #627
barnabee wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Onyx Boox readers have a feature called BooxDrop which runs a web server on the device when you enable it that provides file management and upload. It simple, wireless, and works great. The readers work perfectly fine without an account and the Poke 5 I have is a fair bit smaller than the last Kindle I had with the same size screen. It runs Android and I also use Termux plus a bluetooth keyboard with it for a rat…

I've been tempted by their products in the past, but unless they've improved their stance on their use of GPL covered code in a non-compliant manner I don't want to support their business.

It's a fair point and since hearing about that I've been in two minds as to whether I could buy another device from them.

Re: Nobody cares

#953

Post by wegfawefgawefg »

numpad0 wrote: post #329
Shank wrote: post #45

> In Japan, you get the impression that everyone takes their job and role in society seriously. The median Japanese 7-11 clerk takes their job more seriously than the median US city bureaucrat. My favorite example of this is how, if you visit 7-11 in Japan and an employee isn’t busy, or is busy but with an unimportant task, they will jump to open a cash register and check people out the second a queue forms. They wil…

One thing that rarely mentioned in Japanese 7-11 efficiency is the "employment ice age" problem that contributed to it: there was a massive job crisis around 1993-2005 and major STEM university graduates were dime a dozen. A McDonald's but with only clones of Gordon Freeman as employees tends to become a bit different place than a regular hamburger shop.

theres an effect in countries with high average iq where the quality of low skill labor workers is higher. I dont remember the name, but was convinced it was causal.

its similar to what you are saying, but applies across the board, not just to university grads, and in taiwan also.

i suspect japanese workers at 7-11 now are not college grads still working there from the 90s. its mostly young part time workers. i see middle age people sometimes. Noteably theyre losing the high quality service reputation entirely because many of the stores are being run by immigrants from nepal and the philipines now who dont follow the japanese service memes.

They also mess up the sushi at sushiro/kurasushi and your fish come sideways.

Re: Nobody cares

#954

Post by huhkerrf »

drunner wrote: post #737
huhkerrf wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is most likely the reason. Which means that the author didn't "care" enough to think through what the reason might have been or didn't "care" enough for the pedestrians.

Yeah, that's why we have raised crosswalks and stop signs everywhere that a pedestrian has to interact with a car. Or that we have safe and separated bike lanes instead of paint to keep cyclists safe, right? Do you really think a pedestrian feels safe here with this design? Its the same reason many dont walk places. Too many half passed attempts by people who don't care designing crosswalks and intersections for cars…

I don't get what you're getting at here. But, yes, I feel safer with a cyclist going slow on a shared sidewalk rather than going at full speed.

For some reason, cyclists like to close their eyes when their fellow cyclists run stop lights, cut people off, hit pedestrians. Oh but cars are more dangerous! Yeah, no shit, but that doesn't excuse cyclists not caring about pedestrians.

Re: Nobody cares

#955

Post by ericmay »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #930
SamPatt wrote: post #922

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some elements of beauty are objective. As in, they are hardwired into our brains. Some cities are more beautiful than others. Prague is more beautiful than Detroit.

And yet, it's not as clear cut as that. There is some hardwired stuff in our brains (see e.g. the "bouba / kiki" effect [0]) but most people will agree that what is considered pretty, good, etc is cultural, not to mention changing over time - like architecture trends as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but also painting styles. That said, a few posts back a commenter mentioned that the Mona Lisa is "objectively be…

To your point, though, I think as you look around at McMansions and Wal-Mart there's nothing architecturally redeeming about those structures besides efficiency in building and internal climate control. We know the architectural styles are bad and there are (again to your point about skill) scientific ways we can measure this (Ann Sussman's work).

If you look at historical architecture patterns (mostly pre-WWI) they mirror how art has changed over time.

It's not that Impressionism came about and Renaissance became shit, it's that both are good and important stylistic contributions.

It's not that Gothic architecture came about then all the Romanesque stuff sucked. Both were good and unique.

We run into the same problem as "all art is equal" when we tend to express the belief that because we live in the time period we're complaining about that if only we waited a few hundred years we would recognize that our current building patterns are actually really good. That's just not the case.

Re: Nobody cares

#956

Post by elendee »

To make people / us care, we need to be subject to frequent community gossip. But the suburbs were built in part to escape that, hence why we create these omni-directional online communities, distressed at everything but responsible for nothing.

Re: Nobody cares

#957

Post by readthenotes1 »

unknownsky wrote: post #118
readthenotes1 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to rank the McDonald's in Toppongi hills Tokyo as having the best employees anywhere after I saw one run from one side of the little shop to the other when the French fry buzzer went off. However, it got beat out by the McDonald's in Arkadelphia Arkansas, where the employee fast walked as quickly as hen could to take the order to the car waiting in the Drive-Thru, and then also fast walked back. Running of cou…

Are you Swedish? Just wondering because I've never seen the gender neutral pronoun "hen" in English.

"hen" is my go-to gender neutral 3rd person singular pronoun.

I realize that English speakers use "you" for both singular and plural, having retired "thee" and "thou", but the resulting ambiguity has led to the creation of a new word, "y'all", or sometimes prepending it with "all of" for clarity.

Using "they/them" in the singular will just lead us down the same path.

Why not short circuit it and just add the pronoun English speakers have needed forever?

How often is the gender of the pronouned person(s) relevant? In my experience, almost never.

Re: Nobody cares

#958

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

NoGravitas wrote: post #739
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh.. do people not do that anymore? At the little grocery store I worked at in BC Canada, if there were like 2 or 3 people in line we'd call for help if they weren't already on their way. Seems like a pretty basic thing. Here in the US, I don't know what's going on with the cashiers. They're slow. They don't say a single word to you, not even to give you your total. And they're awful at bagging. I just don't get it.…

It's not a hard job to check out any single customer's groceries. It's a hard job to do it all day, especially when you're not allowed to sit down.

I've literally done it. It's not hard. Maybe if you have some health conditions that make it difficult to stand, but I hope the store will provide accommodations if you do.

Re: Nobody cares

#959

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

athrowaway3z wrote: post #125
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh.. do people not do that anymore? At the little grocery store I worked at in BC Canada, if there were like 2 or 3 people in line we'd call for help if they weren't already on their way. Seems like a pretty basic thing. Here in the US, I don't know what's going on with the cashiers. They're slow. They don't say a single word to you, not even to give you your total. And they're awful at bagging. I just don't get it.…

How roles are perceived, becomes how people perceive themselves, becomes how people act out those roles. Or more to the point: Its easier to be what people expect you to be. In my experience the US is especially susceptible to this 'roleplaying', probably because all (entertrainment) media comes from the same overarching culture.

What, we expect cashiers to be slow and bad so that's how they act? That's ridiculous. I expect them to scan my groceries at a reasonable pace, put the eggs and bread on top, and read me the total when they're done. I expect their managers to give them heck if they're clearing lines at half the speed as the next cashier over. That's about it.

It's not a shameful or embarrassing job. My sister-in-law made a career out of it. She's happy there, so I'm happy for her. She gets good benefits and decent pay. Just do your job and everyone's happy.

Re: Nobody cares

#960

Post by [deleted] »

relistan wrote: post #946
Vampiero wrote: post #940

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The author points to Japan to illustrate that you do get measurably better results when people habitually try to do good work People in Japan habitually kill themselves because of their stupid work culture. Maybe that's not the best example.

That’s not limited to Japan. And besides it’s a strange take to argue that you shouldn’t acknowledge good thing A because unrelated thing B is bad there.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN