There are a few clashing forces. One is the power of startups - what people love is what will prevail. It made macs and iphones grab marketshare back from "corporate" options like windows and palm pilot. Its what keeps tiktok running.
An opposing force is corporate momentum. Its unfortunately true that people are beholden to what companies create. If there are only a few phones available, you will have to pick. If there are only so many shows streaming, you'll probably end up watching the less disgusting of the options.
They are clashing. The ppl's sentiment is AI bad. But if tech keeps making it and pushing it long enough, ppl will get older, corporate initiatives will get sticky, and it will become ingrained. And once its ingrained, its gonna be here forever.
Clojure was not "popular new" to be "boring" in a way, but it is boring in the sense that it works in a predictable manner, I use it for backend and data analysis, just works.
I actually think it is good for kids to have exposure to:
- entertaining themselves
- working/providing for themselves
- having to do things that they don’t want to do
- being told no, and dealing with unfulfilled desire
All with balance, I am not proposing that kids are just left to fend for themselves. Caring for your kids materially and emotionally is important, but so is living your own life and making them live theirs.
I may be having kids in the not too distant future, and when I think about how I would parent, I consider 2 families I know who I have seen raise children.
In one, the kids are often denied requests they make for objects they want to own and activities they want to do. The parents drag their kids along to things that they (the parents) want to do, rather than not doing the thing because the kids don’t want to. At family gatherings, their parents expect that they will take care of and entertain themselves, while the parents enjoy time with the other adults.
In the other family, the kids are showered with toys and attention, and their mom goes to great effort to open any door for them that they express interest in. At family gatherings, the parents are always checking on their kids, and indulge every request the kids make of them.
Which family has happier, more capable, and well-adjusted children? Which family has happier parents? The answer to both is the first family.
The high-effort parents I know aren't overly concerned with that their kids want, but they constantly sacrifice their own time and sanity for what they deem to be in the child's best interests.
Kids love screens, parents love getting to do their own thing while the child is quietly occupied, but a certain type of parent feels the need to go to war over the screen time limit rather than enjoy their dinner. Neither father nor son is having a good time at soccer practice, but a kid's got to have a sport. And so on.
We're calling for something bolder here than merely the will to override a child's wishes. Parents need a permission structure to prioritize their own desires, not just the ones they have on behalf of the children.
There was a good Ezra Klein episode about this [0].
It might be mildly good for kids on net, I actually don't really have a lot of confidence around that claim - kids are quite good at keeping themselves entertained. I have high confidence around the claim that it is moderately bad for parents, and so my sympathies lie quite strongly with reducing the workload on them.
Parent of small kids here. Tricky to estimate, because the desire to not have your kids be worse off because you didn't do enough, and the desire for them to have it better than you, are strong and not really bounded.
However, the idea of parents giving 100% of themselves to the children is also an unsustainable one, and fundamentally horrifying one - if everyone things this way, generation by generation, then this robs existence from any meaning. It's admitting that all the good and nice things in the world, all that separates us from other animals, are all accidents, all made by people who weren't good enough at giving their children their best, and instead wasted their time on stuff like arts and sciences.
So I think there must be a point somewhere. And perhaps a hint of that is the observation that kids are better off with happy parents than with unhappy ones.
> However, the idea of parents giving 100% of themselves to the children is also an unsustainable one,
No one is suggesting giving 100% because it is an impossibility. What is suggested is that parents and children have the same priority - the children's wellbeing.
I have 5 adult sons. The value of my wellbeing is that it enhances their wellbeing. This reflects the nature of our one-way debt. They owe me nothing. I owe them what I can give.
Yes. But my understanding is that you have to be exceptional already - probably have a pHD and notoriety in some way so you won't be surprised when you get the offer anyways and already would have a strong opinion on it. Most of us don't have to worry about that decision.
I think I have unique insight on this. I used to prioritize "important" work especially things that improved the world (I didn't have a good metric though), and even more especially, something which was important for me specifically to do. The idea of Elon Musk starting SpaceX for instance, it really seems like something good which, if he didn't do it, wouldn't have happened. Thats what I wanted for myself.
However I think this is flawed. I have since realized that the world is too complex to control. It is not up to us to save it because there is no clear path to doing so and there never will be. Thinking there is usually leads to wasted time and opportunity cost of other actually important things you could be doing. The biggest thing you are missing out on is doing work that you love. Yes, love really is the most important option when deciding on what to work on, as opposed to value creation, unique skillsets, supply and demand, etc.
Remember that the world is nothing more than the sum of our experiences, the people we know, what we do every day when we wake up. Your choices every day create it, so by acting well you really are improving the world, every day! Doing what you love is improving the world - even if its working on ads. You have no idea what kinds of influence your actions really have so just do good work for yourself and your loved ones. Everything else takes care of itself and if it didn't, you wouldn't be smart or capable enough to do something about that anyways.
It’s a discussion with the author of a book called Deep Work, that intends to help the reader learn how to focus deeply on challenging problems, and avoid distraction.
The EXACT same shit that plagues knowledge workers working on deep issues also plagues the rest of the planet: cognitive overload and distractions. It’s way bigger than deep work.
We are all walking around with the equivalent of a dog shock collar in our pockets, on our wrists, and on our desks: anyone can steal our attention in the blink of an eye. Email. Text. Tinder notification. Instagram like. A lot of people cannot detach from these signals, and it consumes their ability to think and focus.
Where did the assumption that tech solves big problems come in? Consumer problems of course, but societal problems? Somehow people assumed that solving the problem of being bored on the train is a short jump from solving the problem of housing costs and its not.
Good startups are about making something that people will love. Not something that solves a global crisis.
Thinking of the latter instead of the former often results in "playing house" ideas that sound like startup ideas but aren't actually. At least this is what happens to me when I follow the thought process you are laying out.
My Dad did the coolest one for my fifth grade class that everyone still remembers. He showed us how binary addition in a calculator/computer works by giving us all 0 or 1 notecards. Then since the class is already arranged in a grid, each row is a single digit (8 bits). Then He gave input numbers and we raised our cards according to which bit we were an the person to the left of us.
Honnestly I don't remember the specifics but it was so awesome to see something as abstract as a computer/processor shown to us in a way we could understand and participate in. And the layout of the classroom just happens to be perfect for it.
That's an interesting idea. You could take three groups of kids, group 1 is register A, group 2 is register B, group 3 is the output, and you have one for carry/overflow. You can add or remove bits and make other flags to get everyone included. Then you just tell them the rules for any operation you want to run!
For example, adding A and B together you do from right to left, and carry gets to raise his hand when you overflow.
You could do other simple operations like subtract, shifts, ANDs and ORs, etc.
This right here ... so many people eat lunch at their desk. I find that I feel so much better when I take a break, both from being inside, and being in front of my computer where my work cannot escape my brain.
Agreed.I try to run strict pomodoros. Also, when ever I start to feel lethargic, I do a few squats or push ups until failure and then I always go outside for some real air (day or night). It makes me a productivity machine.
I have started going for lunch walks this winter. The effect has been dramatic. If you have low energy levels in the winter or experience SAD, definitely try lunch walks.
If that bothers you, you simply aren't wearing proper clothing.
The difference between a refreshing chill and a harrowing cold can just be an extra sweater under your coat and a good attitude. As long as it isn't very windy, it's easy to make 14 comfortable.
As someone who lives in Minnesota (and has lived in the upper Midwest for the last 14 years)... no, it's not just "proper clothing ...and a good attitude."
Below a certain temperature, it hurts to be outside for any nontrivial amount of time. That is a strong disincentive to go outside, no matter how many sweaters you're wearing.
That is pretty rare though. I live in Sweden (not the northern part) and at my previous job I liked to take walks at lunch and as long as it is not snowing, raining or being too windy it is pretty nice even at colder temperatures.
Now I'm usually talking about over -10C (14F) but a lot of people seem to think even that is too cold but just don't wear proper clothing.
I think that "certain temperature" varies for different people, or even over time for any particular person. When I was a child the cold killed me. A few weeks ago, the highs were in the mid-teens all week around here, and I found myself completely comfortable in jeans, a sweater, hat, gloves, and a coat while outside doing farm work. The big problem at those temperatures is working up a sweat when wearing clothes that don't immediately wick it away from the body. That gets very cold quickly.
> As long as it isn't very windy, it's easy to make 14 comfortable.
No, no it is not.
And I say this as someone who enjoys the cold. No matter what, if it's 14 degrees outside, I'm only going out if I absolutely must. There's no hanging out in the parking lot during lunch in that kind of weather.
I disagree. I'm from the midwest also. Grew up in Wisconsin/Iowa, and currently live in Iowa. I live where the wind hurts my face. Why do I live where the wind hurts my face?
If it's too cold for you to go outside surely you can't complain about having to be inside at work. OP's comment was about not being able to get outside during daylight hours.
Then probably sunlight is not your biggest worry. Here in Helsinki lunch walks are a must to catch that small amount of light we get, even if it's -10 or -20.
An opposing force is corporate momentum. Its unfortunately true that people are beholden to what companies create. If there are only a few phones available, you will have to pick. If there are only so many shows streaming, you'll probably end up watching the less disgusting of the options.
They are clashing. The ppl's sentiment is AI bad. But if tech keeps making it and pushing it long enough, ppl will get older, corporate initiatives will get sticky, and it will become ingrained. And once its ingrained, its gonna be here forever.