baby_wipe

I responded to a similar post above. I have not thought through the externality argument very much.

You are correct. I was mistaken. I updated my original post.

I will note though I am suspicious this will be used as a framework for future mandated regulation.

That's true. Consumers rely on things like brand name, word of mouth, customer reviews, etc.

Another label like this will likely do nothing.

I haven't thought through the externality argument very much. If I do I will come back and respond. I'm sure there are people more thoughtful than me who have said something about it.

Something to keep in mind though, government regulation itself is an externality.

> their eyes will glaze over.

I agree. They don't care.

If anything, consumers need to be protected from predatory politicians claiming to serve the public interest.

Your points about the opt-in nature of the regulation are correct. I was mistaken and made an update in my original post.

> Customers _want_ to purchase more secure products but do not have the option, and do not have the information required to do so.

Again, if customers really were demanding this, why haven't these greedy corporations provided the service already?

If I'm wrong, then there's an market opportunity that I hope an entrepreneur will take advantage of.

Consumers often purchase insurance for low probability, high impact events. I would infer the fact that consumers are not purchasing insurance for these devices means they don't think it's that big of a deal.

The fact they voluntarily trade their own resources for these devices is the evidence I would point to.

They may care about "about lung cancer" and other aspects of the product, but they make trade-offs.

Consumers are ignorant about many aspects of the products they use. I do not trust politicians to somehow know what those asymmetries are and divine what our true preferences are.

I support individual's choice of whether or not take personal safety measures.

It could also be the case politicians are exploiting voters' ignorance of basic economic principles.

[Update: I did not read the original proposal carefully. I mistakenly believed this was a mandated regulation and not a voluntary one, so some of the points in my post do not apply.

However, I still oppose it for mostly the same reason: if consumers wanted this type of label on their products, then we we would likely already see it.

I am also skeptical that this is being initially proposed as a voluntary program, but is actually laying the foundation for a regulation that is mandatory.]

Please do not propose this regulation. If consumers actually cared about their IoT devices receiving security updates, companies would be doing it. The fact that companies are not already doing this is evidence it's not important to consumers. People may express frustration, but their purchasing behavior speaks louder than their words.

This regulation would force companies to work on things that customers don't actually value. It will hinder innovation. Companies could work on features consumers value instead of working on security updates that consumers do not value.

If this regulation passes, companies will be less likely to offer new IoT devices knowing they will have to provide security updates beyond what consumers are demanding.

This regulation will also increase costs for IoT devices. As a consumer, I do not want the FCC mandating what features will be included in my IoT devices.

From the perspective of an individual engineer, tech regulation like this often leads to engineers doing soul-sucking work that nobody cares about. I know your focus is on consumer protection, not producers, so that point may be irrelevant.

Please do not be the individual that causes a negative impact on the world, despite whatever good intentions you may have.

I'm guessing if the FCC enacts this regulation, it will help you in your political career. However, if you were to take the opposite stance and oppose the legislation for the reasons stated above, I'm sure you'd lose your job very quickly. Therefore, I am confident I will be ignored.

Then all news outlets should be forced to publicize their internal editorial decisions.

If for-profit companies keep doing all these awful things, why people keep paying them money?

EconTalk podcast covering this topic: https://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-the-nature-of-the-firm/

Making it cheaper for companies to interview increases the potential opportunities for me as a candidate.

I do not take personal offense to being tested in an automated fashion.

Why is stock such a big portion of compensation for the big tech companies?

My process:

(1) How would I explain face-to-face what this code does to another developer?

(2) Use the key words from that explanation to make a name as short as possible without losing clarity.

Example:

Step 1: This class handles all the navigation work for the sign-up flow in our mobile app.

Step 2: SignUpFlowNavigator

My understanding is DoorDash started out by listing restaurants without their permission. Now DoorDash has this legislation which will protect them from any new startup who tries to do the same thing. (The assumption being it will be much easier for DoorDash to obtain permission than it would be for a nascent startup.)

This is terrible. I would not want a third party to dictate the the hours I work for my employer.

There are situations where I'd like to guarantee to my employer that I'll do my best to be available 24/7. This regulation would restrict my ability to negotiate.

Shame on the EU.

I really like the product. If I had more money I would probably buy it.

One thing that could be helpful is to provide to a private RSS url in addition to web link, so I can play it in my podcast player.

Maybe there’s a DIY version of this product? You make available the internal tools that interviews use but let me actually do the interview? To make it cheaper.

I’m actually about to start interviewing my own family members to get some of our history recorded, so I'm very interested in this use case.

Good points. In fact, I'm guessing consumers ultimately want the App Store to be a monopoly. It gives us a central place where both devs and consumer can exchange with each other.

Break it up, and then you may hear people complain about how the mobile app marketplace is too fragmented (similar to how video streaming currently is).

It would be really cool to have an allow-plaintext-only option (and monospaced font).

I know it’s probably too late for this, and I’m probably in the minority wanting this, but markdown is too complicated for my note-taking.

Is there anything like Notion the only allows .txt files and folders? I would be very interested in that. I tried doing it with a git repo but I want the auto-syncing.

I've built a podcast app that lets you take notes at specific time stamps.

What I've personally found is it's way too cumbersome to pull the phone out of your pocket, unlock it, press the "Add Note" button (assuming the Now Playing screen is already showing, otherwise another click for that), type in your notes, and click save...and probably rewind 15 seconds because you lost track of the conversation.

But now that I write this out I realize a Siri shortcut could be apt here.

> given how much Amazon has benefited from this epidemic

It's important to also recognize how individuals and families have benefited from Amazon during this time, including myself.

Very cool, but too expensive for me.

You mean like 1.5x pay? If so, I don't like that either.

Not sure what exempt employees are (my own ignorance).

I strongly dislike the idea of any government-mandated paternal leave. Staying home from work is not free, and the cost of it comes out of my salary.

I personally want some paternal leave even with its costs, but I'd prefer that negotiation to stay between me and my employer. I don't want some bottom threshold set by a third party.

Yes basically this.

Not sure if it has the power to do anything beyond light web dev, but would still be amazing.

I really wish I could use macOS on the iPad.

As a half measure, I'm gonna see if I can use sidecar with my macbook lid shut.