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One of the saddest things to me is seeing some of the most brilliant and creative minds work on trivial or frivolous things. How much positive impact could thos

One of the saddest things to me is seeing some of the most brilliant and creative minds work on trivial or frivolous things. How much positive impact could those people be having if they were just pointed in another direction? Yes, it's sometimes hard to know what frivolous looking things may turn out to be important, but some things (e.g. smartphone-controlled candles) are clear as day.

recursive 10y ago
Also sometimes formulated as "how can you people be having fun when cancer still isn't cured yet?"
- ethanbond 10y ago
  Some would argue there's a difference between having fun and dumping billions upon billions of dollars into unequivocally stupid shit.
  - recursive 10y ago
    Vote with your wallet. Put your billions into unequivocally useful progress.
- imagist 10y ago
  So you're claiming that people are working on smartphone-controlled candles for fun? Because LuDela seems like it's a startup trying to make money, not a group of people trying to have fun.
  - recursive 10y ago
    No, I'm claiming that making smartphone-controlled candles isn't Serious Productive Work that Contributes to Society, and they should Feel Bad.
  - fps 10y ago
    Here's a community of people who make things that you probably find useless for fun: https://makezine.com/ https://makezine.com/ Here's a company that makes money off this community, which is probably made up of people who think making random crap you can control with your smartphone is fun: https://www.adafruit.com/ https://www.adafruit.com/ Things you don't understand can be fun, including make interesting gadgets that you don't find useful.
    - icebraining 10y ago
      The purpose of those companies is to get and help people to make stuff. That's not useless. Making is the point, not so much the final product. And still 90% of what I've seen on Makezine was more useful than LudeLa.
    - imagist 10y ago
      There's a difference between selling parts to a community of people who use them to make things for fun, and selling pre-made things that some people would make for fun if they weren't already pre-made.
fps 10y ago
Why is this so important to you that it's one of your "saddest things"? People should be free to work on what they want to work on. Maybe these brilliant people you want to subjugate have no interest in whatever it is you deem important.
- icebraining 10y ago
  Please stop implying that having a critical opinion implies a defense of banning these things.
  - fps 10y ago
    It doesn't? The point of the article was that people shouldn't be allowed to build things like IoT candles because they're not necessary. Not "this isn't useful to me", or even "this thing is ridiculous, they're not going to sell any of them!", but: "These are people with real skills and entrepreneurial spirit, investing a renewable resource (money) and a non-renewable one (time) into products that really aren’t going to move the needle." The GP even says "How much positive impact could those people be having if they were just pointed in another direction?" This isn't being critical of their interests, this is saying they shouldn't be able to choose what they work on.
    - icebraining 10y ago
      The point of the article was that people shouldn't be allowed Nowhere does the article say or imply this. Yes, the author thinks these are not useful generally and that it's a waste to create them. No, that still doesn't mean or imply they want to ban their creation. The GP even says "How much positive impact could those people be having if they were just pointed in another direction?" This isn't being critical of their interests, this is saying they shouldn't be able to choose what they work on. No, it isn't. In no way, shape or form does the verb "point" imply coercion. "Point" means "direct someone's attention".
robalfonso 10y ago
Point, however, I think its pretty clear a bluetooth candle is frivolous on its face....that said if you could control over the internet that could be a useful product feature. i.e. left your candle on and ran out? Extinguish remotely. My wife has done this before (the leaving on not the engineering a internet candle...unless she's hiding that from me)
dcwca 10y ago
I think it's beautiful that we've reached a point in society where we can work on trivial things, and I hope we can bring everyone along for the ride. My wife purchased about a dozen LED candles. I like them because they're atmospheric and simulate a real candle without me having anxiety about burning my house down. They're fairly annoying to turn off and on though - I've often wondered if there were a slightly more expensive LED candle with remote control.
- sbov 10y ago
  We haven't reached any "point" in society. For at least a thousand years there's been a subset of the population who worked on "trivial" things.
- icebraining 10y ago
  I've often wondered if there were a slightly more expensive LED candle with remote control. They cost $13.78 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Candles-Remote-Control-Pillar/dp/B003VXG7Y6 https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Candles-Remote-Control-Pill...
ynniv 10y ago
No one sets out to make "frivolous" things. We're all just chasing applications of something that we think will be useful (in this case the IoT) and sometimes something comes out that other people think is ridiculous. It's possible that this person's next project really is to use embedded processors to cure cancer.
yiyus 10y ago
This happens at several levels. Smartphone-controlled candles are a great example. Personally, what I find sad is that while many of the best programmers in the world are busy writing the next blogging framework or javascript UI library, scientific software that can make a great impact in our lives (and is a huge challenge even for the most experienced developer) is being written by PhD students with zero experience in programming. But I do not think the experienced developers or the inexperienced students are to blame here. To be honest, I do not know who would be.
TheCapn 10y ago
Ehhhh... I disagree on a few levels. I do automation projects for friends on the side and every project starts with what is essentially flipping a bit or driving an output and grows from that. Home automation really is a matter of solving a dozen small problems to resolve the bigger one. To say automating a candle has no tangible benefits is looking at the small problem and failing to see how the larger problem exists outside it. What does it take to light a pilot light on a burner, heater, dryer, etc? I'm going to guess that the smaller problem involved in the bigger picture here is much the same. I definitely could sell a cellphone controlled burner in my job (though the regulations that sit in place are probably another hurdle.... outside the scope of this discussion though). And here's the other stupid thing. If people are willing to pay for it then it's not a bad idea. Someone was just clever enough to see if there was a market of people willing to buy the "smaller problem" without thinking of complicated ways to apply it. At a simple level, if its profitable, its useful. That profit likely drives this business to solve bigger problems. Think of it as a seed funding by creating stupid candles to apply technology to the larger problem. They don't necessarily have 6 or 7 figures of cash sitting out there to solve the big problem but to rope a bunch of people into the candle is enough to get them off the ground running. On another side of it ask what the person would be doing if they couldn't do that. There's no guarantee they'd gravitate towards something deemed "Beneficial" to humanity.
- icebraining 10y ago
  But that bigger picture was already solved; fireplaces with remote controls have existed for years.
sebastos 10y ago
I know what you mean, people can be so frivolous. Sometimes I just can't believe I'm surrounded by a bunch of lazy, time-wasting jerkoffs who fritter away their days getting haircuts and drinking coffee and reading magazines and walking their dogs. I saw two fellows playing Chess in the park the other day and I just wanted to run up, flip the board over and scream "PEOPLE ARE STARVING IN AFRICA YOU SELFISH MANIACS". Or maybe I should lighten up.
CPLX 10y ago
> One of the saddest things to me is seeing some of the most brilliant and creative minds work on trivial or frivolous things. Another point of view would be that people who create frivolous things are, by definition, not particularly creative.

recursive 10y ago

Also sometimes formulated as "how can you people be having fun when cancer still isn't cured yet?"

ethanbond 10y ago
Some would argue there's a difference between having fun and dumping billions upon billions of dollars into unequivocally stupid shit.
- recursive 10y ago
  Vote with your wallet. Put your billions into unequivocally useful progress.
imagist 10y ago
So you're claiming that people are working on smartphone-controlled candles for fun? Because LuDela seems like it's a startup trying to make money, not a group of people trying to have fun.
- recursive 10y ago
  No, I'm claiming that making smartphone-controlled candles isn't Serious Productive Work that Contributes to Society, and they should Feel Bad.
- fps 10y ago
  Here's a community of people who make things that you probably find useless for fun: https://makezine.com/ https://makezine.com/ Here's a company that makes money off this community, which is probably made up of people who think making random crap you can control with your smartphone is fun: https://www.adafruit.com/ https://www.adafruit.com/ Things you don't understand can be fun, including make interesting gadgets that you don't find useful.
  - icebraining 10y ago
    The purpose of those companies is to get and help people to make stuff. That's not useless. Making is the point, not so much the final product. And still 90% of what I've seen on Makezine was more useful than LudeLa.
  - imagist 10y ago
    There's a difference between selling parts to a community of people who use them to make things for fun, and selling pre-made things that some people would make for fun if they weren't already pre-made.

fps 10y ago

Why is this so important to you that it's one of your "saddest things"? People should be free to work on what they want to work on. Maybe these brilliant people you want to subjugate have no interest in whatever it is you deem important.

icebraining 10y ago
Please stop implying that having a critical opinion implies a defense of banning these things.
- fps 10y ago
  It doesn't? The point of the article was that people shouldn't be allowed to build things like IoT candles because they're not necessary. Not "this isn't useful to me", or even "this thing is ridiculous, they're not going to sell any of them!", but: "These are people with real skills and entrepreneurial spirit, investing a renewable resource (money) and a non-renewable one (time) into products that really aren’t going to move the needle." The GP even says "How much positive impact could those people be having if they were just pointed in another direction?" This isn't being critical of their interests, this is saying they shouldn't be able to choose what they work on.
  - icebraining 10y ago
    The point of the article was that people shouldn't be allowed Nowhere does the article say or imply this. Yes, the author thinks these are not useful generally and that it's a waste to create them. No, that still doesn't mean or imply they want to ban their creation. The GP even says "How much positive impact could those people be having if they were just pointed in another direction?" This isn't being critical of their interests, this is saying they shouldn't be able to choose what they work on. No, it isn't. In no way, shape or form does the verb "point" imply coercion. "Point" means "direct someone's attention".

robalfonso 10y ago

Point, however, I think its pretty clear a bluetooth candle is frivolous on its face....that said if you could control over the internet that could be a useful product feature. i.e. left your candle on and ran out? Extinguish remotely. My wife has done this before (the leaving on not the engineering a internet candle...unless she's hiding that from me)

dcwca 10y ago

I think it's beautiful that we've reached a point in society where we can work on trivial things, and I hope we can bring everyone along for the ride. My wife purchased about a dozen LED candles. I like them because they're atmospheric and simulate a real candle without me having anxiety about burning my house down. They're fairly annoying to turn off and on though - I've often wondered if there were a slightly more expensive LED candle with remote control.

sbov 10y ago
We haven't reached any "point" in society. For at least a thousand years there's been a subset of the population who worked on "trivial" things.
icebraining 10y ago
I've often wondered if there were a slightly more expensive LED candle with remote control. They cost $13.78 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Candles-Remote-Control-Pillar/dp/B003VXG7Y6 https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Candles-Remote-Control-Pill...

ynniv 10y ago

No one sets out to make "frivolous" things. We're all just chasing applications of something that we think will be useful (in this case the IoT) and sometimes something comes out that other people think is ridiculous. It's possible that this person's next project really is to use embedded processors to cure cancer.

yiyus 10y ago

This happens at several levels. Smartphone-controlled candles are a great example. Personally, what I find sad is that while many of the best programmers in the world are busy writing the next blogging framework or javascript UI library, scientific software that can make a great impact in our lives (and is a huge challenge even for the most experienced developer) is being written by PhD students with zero experience in programming. But I do not think the experienced developers or the inexperienced students are to blame here. To be honest, I do not know who would be.

TheCapn 10y ago

Ehhhh... I disagree on a few levels. I do automation projects for friends on the side and every project starts with what is essentially flipping a bit or driving an output and grows from that. Home automation really is a matter of solving a dozen small problems to resolve the bigger one. To say automating a candle has no tangible benefits is looking at the small problem and failing to see how the larger problem exists outside it. What does it take to light a pilot light on a burner, heater, dryer, etc? I'm going to guess that the smaller problem involved in the bigger picture here is much the same. I definitely could sell a cellphone controlled burner in my job (though the regulations that sit in place are probably another hurdle.... outside the scope of this discussion though). And here's the other stupid thing. If people are willing to pay for it then it's not a bad idea. Someone was just clever enough to see if there was a market of people willing to buy the "smaller problem" without thinking of complicated ways to apply it. At a simple level, if its profitable, its useful. That profit likely drives this business to solve bigger problems. Think of it as a seed funding by creating stupid candles to apply technology to the larger problem. They don't necessarily have 6 or 7 figures of cash sitting out there to solve the big problem but to rope a bunch of people into the candle is enough to get them off the ground running. On another side of it ask what the person would be doing if they couldn't do that. There's no guarantee they'd gravitate towards something deemed "Beneficial" to humanity.

icebraining 10y ago
But that bigger picture was already solved; fireplaces with remote controls have existed for years.

sebastos 10y ago

I know what you mean, people can be so frivolous. Sometimes I just can't believe I'm surrounded by a bunch of lazy, time-wasting jerkoffs who fritter away their days getting haircuts and drinking coffee and reading magazines and walking their dogs. I saw two fellows playing Chess in the park the other day and I just wanted to run up, flip the board over and scream "PEOPLE ARE STARVING IN AFRICA YOU SELFISH MANIACS". Or maybe I should lighten up.

CPLX 10y ago

> One of the saddest things to me is seeing some of the most brilliant and creative minds work on trivial or frivolous things. Another point of view would be that people who create frivolous things are, by definition, not particularly creative.