sublinear

Can we not tell these stories? This isn't reddit.

Yes, and all that was definitely before the internet. In just about any other context, this fact would be irrelevant.

Long before the birth of anyone reading this, we shifted away from the extremes and started caring more about the median person's thoughts and experiences. It's a fundamental aspect of modern western civilization.

What does the median intellect know about romanticism? As a matter of fact, what do you really know about it?

You can say this kind of thing all you want, but the fact of the matter is we've never had so much discussion about "human pursuits" in the history of humanity.

This topic has historically been reserved for those fortunate enough to be so leisurely with their time. Haven't you ever considered that you're seeing the beginning instead of the end? Why else would there be so much debate? It's a big change to the status quo.

The short staccato phrasing is exhausting to read regardless of who or what writes that slop.

It's always been considered bad writing, and strongly reminds me of a elementary student trying to hit their word quota for an essay.

AI put a massive spotlight on all the required but unspoken decision making and coordination that must occur with stakeholders outside their own teams during the development process.

Dysfunctional middle management has always traditionally neglected it or actively undermined it, blaming others when things go wrong and taking credit when things go right.

Naive developers are always more than happy to do what they think is "picking up the slack" not realizing it's a trap.

Perhaps most organizations are just now more wise to the fact that using AI to "accelerate the process" is like arming the monkeys with machine guns?

Is there a reputable summary that explains the cheaper sales price? I'm having a hard time believing it all boils down to politics, but there's way too much noise in the way.

This has very little to do with technology. Like a lot of these articles lately, it doesn't belong on HN. Every legacy tabloid like Wired has been pumping out stories that are 90% social and 10% technology. Simply involving computers is not enough to keep it on HN anymore.

There's nothing to discuss here, but I'll try anyway...

I don't think we've ever burned down a city and "started over" just because of obnoxious salespeople harassing and soliciting, antisocial loitering, open air drug problems, homelessness, or even the unregulated food carts making people sick. It's extremely easy to see that these problems are as old as civilization and the parallels with social media, ecommerce, advertising, etc.

We solve them by ousting the old and bringing regulation. Tough shit if you don't like it. It's not a question of "if", but "when". It happens when people get fed up enough. We're not quite there since it's still mostly unproductive whining.

Is your premise really true?

I'm sure they can just fire half and double up work or outsource. That's the traditional way and it definitely works. The worst that ever happens is a few will reneg on payroll. Everyone who still chooses to work there is happy enough.

The worst that can happen with AI... well...

> Use a box of your choice on the other end of the HDMI cables. This is now the box that you trust. (Roku? Shield? Blu-ray? MacBook? PC? Linux? Playstation? XBox? Whatever you want.)

If they choose a Firestick or Roku what's the difference? XD

Are you trying to convince yourself? Let it go.

It's still confusing to call that a "change". Apart from the way the media covers the topic, I've never known mathematics to be about proofs.

There's no such thing as "irreversibly memeified". Just look at all the old pop songs that seemed to be "ruined" until they got a re-release on youtube in the last 8 years or so. They sound totally fresh, especially if you've never seen their music video before. That latter part gets at the root of the problem. It's not really the song, but the presentation. That's how art works. If you stop looking at memes, they stop working. If you start thinking for yourself, the disillusion goes away and is replaced by your own more confident subjectivity.

I can unironically watch American Psycho, for example. It's not that hard.

The Rick Astley meme was always weird guerilla marketing. Unless you've deliberately engaged with the meme, that effect doesn't work. The people who are stuck in that mindset have done that damage to themselves. People used to even joke about actually watching the "for N hours" format to mask their mental health issues, but I'm certain some people actually did it.

That makes sense. I am aware that what I'm saying would agitate a certain cohort of commenters who are used to the echo chambers of other communities. They would abuse the flag feature, and the mods on HN aren't free of bias either.

EDIT: Upon some more reflection, I can go back to my old format of posing my skepticism as questions instead of making statements. I guess the brainrot is getting to me.

Did you mean to flag the parent comment I was replying to? These tangents rarely start with the replies. I do understand that the metadiscussion I'm bringing up is uncomfortable, though.

They are forced upon Americans in every way imaginable. They're bundled in with appliance sets sold to first time home buyers and preinstalled in every apartment.

You and the other comment are missing my point. It really doesn't matter at all how well they do or don't work. Dishwashers are a sales platform. The rest of the world doesn't have them.

They are neat in a way, but even TC himself admitted that the dishwasher is sort of a solution in search of a problem. His only endorsement was that they save water compared to the typical lazy bastard attempting to wash dishes by hand, and that it's a net good for that reason. I never disagreed with that. I said that TC counts as an influencer, and perhaps in the sneakiest way possible, given these replies.

Calling you all "naive" is really an understatement once the echo chamber begins reverberating. Jeez! Yes, you're part of it. I'm simply pointing it out. Yes, "citation needed" is a pseudointellectual crutch. No, you don't have to trust an influencer just because everyone else does.

> “I’m so smart” does not impress people who can reproduce your brilliance by asking Claude for “insights, no mistakes.”

I'm not convinced. I'm old enough to remember when people said similar about previous waves of tech (search engines, smartphones, etc.) replacing everything from books and handwriting to thinking. People were talking about "the wisdom of the crowd" and living a "quantified life" as recently as a decade ago.

Being "smart" is not only highly dependent on context beyond what computers can sense or reasonably "live in" (even when you're not querying), but also timing and deeper insight. AI has a very very long way to go if we're even keeping that as a goal for it.

I think it's more often the case that anyone trying to be "smart" can't hide how dumb they are. You're right that nobody is impressed by ego-fragile defensive snark or try-hard quotes. I don't think they ever were though?

> This is an impossible psychological barrier to pass for me. Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" cannot dissolve into any movie's soundtrack for me when used unironically because I consider it a meme song.

The last time I felt this way, I was still in school and disillusioned. Do you not consume unironic media anymore (or ever)?

> I would take an electric over the camrys and crv’s any day

I think this completely misunderstands why people are buying a Camry or CRV.

I love that this perfectly highlights all the HN astroturfing.

It's still far cheaper, faster, and less wasteful to wash by hand. It's just that the technique required to achieve that is... controversial? It's definitely always so misrepresented you'd swear it's the "before" part of a 90s informercial shot in black and white with a frustrated idiot failing at a simple task before throwing their hands up and pleading that "there has to be a better way".

Dishwashers simply aren't used in places with water restrictions. Broke people don't have a budget for dishwashing detergent because it's less general purpose than dish soap. There are likely people who started using their dishwasher more or even suddenly bought one based on those rants. It jiggled the handle on consumer trends that otherwise rarely change, so I consider that "influence".

If he stuck to just explaining how they work instead of attacking people's way of living, it would have flown under the radar.

> no sneaky influencer videos

Considering that every Veritasium and Technology Connections video ever made has gotta be linked in there, I think you need to check your biases.

I'm not even saying they make particularly disagreeable content, but that they present a very narrow sometimes stubbornly incorrect worldview and inevitably veer into some politics (especially TC). The rants about dishwashers and HVAC were memorable for being completely impractical advice and ignorant of world economics.

The viewership of both channels skew younger and more naive. They tend to parrot ideas like "Bayesian thinking" without realizing how it made them overeager to accept AI as "generally intelligent". Veritasium sold out a really long time ago before the majority even realized it.

Yes, and the downvotes and replies you're getting on here perfectly prove your point.

The moderate views are always seen as too "boring" or "naive". There's always a vocal crowd who wants to tell you about it. Anyone willing to leave a comment is already too engaged enough to take a step back and find nuance in what is not being said.

I don't agree this is exclusive to the 80s. We kept getting this shit plastered onto everything until well into the 2000s.

The Gen Z obsession with Frutiger design wouldn't be the same without the matching typography.

> No fluff, no marketing that bordered on propaganda

Your comment sounds a lot like propaganda to me.

> ... devices are treated as disposable, depreciating products.

I would argue that this shift really happened in the last 30 to 40 years. We can say it started earlier, but that wasn't true of the majority of goods until around then. Things became "disposable" when the functional innards were reduced to a blob IC. LED lighting taking over pushed it even further.

> Japanese consumer technology meant something incredibly precious to people in underdeveloped and developing nations.

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this. I grew up pretty damn broke (like unreliable water kind of broke). Perhaps not as broke as you're describing, but there has always been some bittersweet resentment in the back of people's minds this whole time too. Casio watches are the poster child for exactly the decline you claim to be concerned about. Older people I grew up around were not so materialistic.

Yes, they are stylish in a very cool and functional way that deserves more credit. It's a very ethically justified and postmodern-inspired genre of design. It's like jazz. It's fantastically free of dogmas and tropes. People can fearlessly contribute their own cultural perspectives and elevate everyone's taste in the process. Let's keep it that way, by not hugging it to death.

> There is a beauty and a tragedy in those vintage Japanese watches.

Yes, exactly. That's the tragedy. We finally got what we wanted since the beginning of human history, but at what cost?

It's not that bad. You're describing what senior devs have always been.

Don't get me wrong. There absolutely is survival bias at play here. Historically speaking, most devs change careers long before they turn senior.

I'm just not understanding the hysteria. This is the latest set of reasons for people to quit. Before AI, it was outsourcing. If you want to, just quit already. If you want to stay, deal with it.

We need an "ai.ycombinator.com" too.

> Any politician with enough foresight to do what needs to be done gets removed, so those that remain are selected for their thick foreheads.

I probably should have quoted this part too. I was replying to the whole comment about the changing winds of politics. The economics is just one of the symptoms.

> What’s more fun is that while france is teetering on the brink, it’s hardly alone, and it’s collapse will tip the dominoes.

California, for example.

That last sentence is how we know you've never been there. The ratio is the same as anywhere else.

Isn't that just anyone with an "architect" job title though? I don't think that kind of dev is particularly rare at all.

I've found that "ops" has become far too overabstracted and jargony. Their moat is endless "certifications". Their "experts" are the dogmatic personality types who try everything in their power to prevent their feet from ever touching the ground like it's lava. They lack the kind of dev or sysadmin experience where you have to stand under your own constructions like a Roman engineer.

Any formerly-known-as "full stack" dev who kept at it for the last decade and a half would run circles around anyone in ops. That's every senior dev working right now who doesn't like to manage people.

It used to be that the ones who went SRE just wanted a pay bump for a bullshit job of relatively light coding puzzles and parroting stuff in meetings, but I guess that well has dried up with "AI".