HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

engineer_22

1,671 karma · joined August 30, 2019

submissionscomments
engineer_22··on I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy
The linked article is hardly an exposé of advanced materials research...
engineer_22··on AI promised less work. I've never worked more
Ditch diggers complaining that the steam shovel makes them lay more pipe.

Couple options: learn to operate the hoe. Or find a new industry that needs manual labor.

What you're actually frustrated by is having too many people in the hole.

This is all an analogy.

engineer_22··on There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]
Yes, I have done this and more. Grab your nuts and say what you want, with your chest.
engineer_22··on There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]
Your AI psychosis is showing
engineer_22··on Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Dolly Parton was famous for her embrace of anarchist sympathies.
engineer_22··on There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]
> somehow we're working more hours than ever. Especially in well paid disciplines.

Working more is a choice. The field is well paid because there the industry is supply constrained. Workers have a choice to work more because they're the supply.

> 2 or maybe 3, > $1 trillion dollar companies are poised to capture all the economic value

The AI companies running models will capture a portion of the value they're creating. Their vendors and their customers capture similar portions, and the end user/society at large captures the lions share of the value as real work done.

engineer_22··on The RAM shortage is bringing back DDR4
> As for "doing it on purpose" ? It's being milked for all its worth. That's what companies do. They milk the market for what it will pay.

In supply constrained markets the bidders set the price floor, not the manufacturer. A manufacturer produces a supply; they tender the supply for bids. The highest bidder gets the opportunity to purchase the supply. Everyone else has to wait for the next bid, the waiting is their opportunity cost, and is priced into their bid.

engineer_22··on I would like the value of my home to rise, while my property taxes fall
A study from norway? As broadly applicable as studying Saudi.
engineer_22··on Tom Brown used GOP ties to broker a $1.25B/month SpaceX compute deal
What countries?
engineer_22··on Tom Brown used GOP ties to broker a $1.25B/month SpaceX compute deal
> There are lots of examples of this over the last two years

And an equal number in your country. Do not lecture Americans on freedom and virtue. Your country has its share of shortcomings, your economy structured to a higher degree to benefit a class of oligarchs. Your politicians are liars and thieves like any other. Wait your turn.

engineer_22··on Tom Brown used GOP ties to broker a $1.25B/month SpaceX compute deal
For real? You still have feudal titles and a monarch. In your land some humans are literally created as more human than others. Your government literally asks the monarch for permission to do democracy. But you'll lecture Americans on throwing off the strong man.
engineer_22··on Tom Brown used GOP ties to broker a $1.25B/month SpaceX compute deal
Look I don't want to be pedantic, but this problem is exactly why the 2nd constitution of the United states framed up a representative democracy with strong federal government. It's a middle ground between a mob and a strong man. Close enough to the people to course-correct in perilous times (good track record for that, graven circumstances the likes of which we've no living memory) and far enough removed from the masses to guide us as a peer among nations. This only fails if the traditional Republic's "Rule of Law" is eroded to the point that the law becomes irrelevant.

DSA is the Coachman in pinocchio who promises a new life on Pleasure Island. Eventually the bill comes due.

engineer_22··on I would like the value of my home to rise, while my property taxes fall
A wealth tax is just a warning shot to your wealthy neighbors, if they can afford to flee, they'll flee.

If you're planning a peasant revolt you should really consider going all-in, bloody revolution, you give the kulaks less time & space to plan for contingencies.

engineer_22··on I would like the value of my home to rise, while my property taxes fall
> In a lot of cities property taxes are enough to get in the way of secure housing for, e.g., disabled people.

Nah, the market is supply constrained, if taxes go down the price of the real estate just goes up to fill the gap. People make purchase decisions based on income & total expenses, not on anything else, "can I afford this house?". The price stops rising when the answer switches from "yes" to "no". If your friend can't afford a house right now they don't have enough buying power to compete in the market with other house buyers. Reducing taxes won't give them any advantage in the market that other buyers don't get.

engineer_22··on Why were Victorian elites so effective?
the clergy.
engineer_22··on Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?
is writing the same skill as teaching?

just sit kids in front of well written books and the job is done.

engineer_22··on Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?
> school districts seem to be so cowardly in the face of bad lawsuits that they are willing to throw teachers under the bus to avoid them.

No different than any other employer-employee relationship - the school has a responsibility to protect itself. Teachers have rights too, if she believes her employer contributed to harm or has taken retaliatory action against her she can bring her own suit.

engineer_22··on Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?
>This article so very poorly written

Buddy, it's a magazine for teachers - it's not a piece for the NY Times.

>In addition, I can't find the author elsewhere online

Elizabeth Martin is a common name, there are many. She has 1 other article on this website about the same topic from 6+ months ago. This is probably an issue that is important to her and has no other reason to write articles.

>Is anyone else skeptical about the validity of this article?

Are you skeptical that teachers are being assaulted by students? What exactly are you skeptical of?

engineer_22··on Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?
higher frequency of violence in schools in urban districts. but suburban and rural districts are dealing with it too. [1]

[1] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a06

engineer_22··on Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges
yea, it's awesome, super smooth acceleration from stop to highway speed
engineer_22··on Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges
> Nissan Altima

OK, that's a fair statement, but!

My 2017 Altima has been great. Comfortable to drive, bluetooth connection that doesn't drive me crazy, space for passengers and cargo, manageable maintenance, I even use it to tow a small trailer with lawn equipment, no issues! I'm up to 190,000 mi with only minor repairs that I could do myself. I got my money's worth out of this one.

That said... I do avoid smart appliances, especially LG and Samsung. The additional features do not seem to add enough value to overcome the potential problems.

engineer_22··on Will Open Source Survive the Agents That Replaced It?
The open source "gift economy" is a patronage system akin to the Renaissance arts, enabled by maximal extractive leverage. AI represents a democratization of the human machine interface
engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
So you want the job or not?
engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
> It takes years to develop them.

Is AI going somewhere?

engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
> I think you missed their conclusions.

I didn't miss it.

> The problem was that substantial subcomponent or process vendors only exist in china.

He found vendors in USA. They didn't call him back.

USA has manufacturing. But Americans want to drive cars and own their own home. In order to achieve that American manufacturers need high volume or high margin - better BBQ scrubber isn't either of those.

> What's more, tooling isn't super cost sensitive because one tool can make thousands of parts.

Tool making is highly sensitive to labor cost. Every article is a one-off. It can't be automated, often not even duplicated. There are tool and die makers in the USA but if you want to make consumer products you can't afford American tool and die because American tool and die makers want to drive cars and own their own homes. Chinese tool and die makers don't have the same expectations.

> So American tool making went away.

It didn't go away. You just don't know about it.

engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
> I think there's a sense in which it might do both at the same time.

This is probably true.

Many artisan fabric techniques were lost when industrial looms displaced those jobs. But heavy industry enabled cloth to be manufactured at a rate that people were free to spend their time and money on other priorities - and now (centuries later) the society is in a sufficiently advanced stage of development that the old techniques are being rediscovered.

Perhaps the example underscores the importance of thoughtful preservation of insitutional knowledge.

engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
it wasn't completely abolished. but the economics forced out the low-value-added work, only high-value manufacturing (and politically important manufacturing) remained.
engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
Grill brush found out that the problem is chinese products are so much cheaper (without ascribing cause of that) that north american producers can only compete on native advertising (B2C) or purchasers that require a north american supply chain (B2B).
engineer_22··on AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You
> West/America decided one day that manufacturing would be cheaper to outsource and better (short term) profit was to be made by outsourcing it all to China. The institutional expertise started to deteriorate, to the point that America simply didn't even have the capacity, or expertise anymore to produce stuff

Americans produce the highest technology equipment in the world. Our machining base is structurally sound, but its all making weapons, so you don't hear about it.

It's true that China benefitted immensely from outsourcing, but they took the jobs Americans didn't want. It's the same with immigration today - folks cross the Rio Grande to do chores that Americans won't, or others fly in and work for nothing in academia while they wait for their PhD.

> The problem imo is the slow deterioration of institutional knowledge that offloading the mental task of wisdom gathering to AI is causing.

Have you considered the institutional knowledge could actually be actively preserved and distributed with AI? The kind of tacit knowledge that is situated and not readily preserved in a book might be absorbed by thinking machines and proliferated to the next person who needs it. The caveats would be trade secrets, skill differentiators, that people might not be willing to discuss, and manufacturing secrets of national importance. Maybe you can think of others.

engineer_22··on War may be coming. Are we psychologically ready?
https://archive.ph/YDwhy
Page 1 of 34Next →