5 ms·

My work is a bit meta at the moment. I'm making software that can take part designs and optimize their physical shape for better performance. So the end resul

My work is a bit meta at the moment. I'm making software that can take part designs and optimize their physical shape for better performance. So the end result is more fuel efficient cars, faster planes, etc.

angersock 10y ago
Oh, so you're optimizing and not innovating.
- fjdhcjjenxncnd 10y ago
  Actually no. I'm making the software that did not previously exist. Others down the road can then use it to produce better performing products. Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats".
  - angersock 10y ago
    Like, what special sauce do you bring to the table that ANSYS or Solidworks or whatever FEA package people use for optimization studies doesn't already do--and probably do well enough? You dismiss twitter, snapchat clones, whatever when they do deliver actual value to people just because they don't meet some arbitrary feelgood measure of "innovative". A measure that coincidentally happens to somehow make your cute little tool worldchanging! Industry, especially in mech and AEC, is hilariously slow to change workflows once they have something that works. Your product is probably going to get lost in the noise, all with you puttering around going "but but but I was innovating! Why don't people support innovation?!". You're coming off as a holier-than-thou "srs bsns" engineer when you should have some humility. Maybe post under your real account.
    - fjdhcjjenxncnd 10y ago
      It's still very much a research implementation, but I'm making global black box combinatoric methods which can be used where analytic optimization methods are not available, e.g. multi-objective optimization. >Maybe post under your real account. I have no real account. I always make a new one every few posts partly for privacy reasons, and partly because I enjoy reading posts like your own. :^)
      - arcanus 10y ago
        As someone who did numerical optimization for my doctoral thesis (also mechE), this sounds more amenable to publications than a start up. Are you trying to commercialize?
      - mappu 10y ago
        > I have no real account. I always make a new one every few posts partly for privacy reasons This is the logical next step after random site-specific passwords. The login/logout workflow does make this inconvenient though. Browser extension idea? Chan boards use thread-specific IDs or thread-specific tripcode salts to achieve much the same thing - privacy by default, but identifiers when it helps you follow a conversation.
  - user5994461 10y ago
    > Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats". Actually. By reducing the consumption of oil, it becomes cheaper to travel and people will travel more... increasing the consumption of oil. Game word in point: You might be having the opposing effect of what you think :D
    - fulafel 10y ago
      It's known that we can't dig up and burning all profitably extractable hydrocarbons, if we want to avoid the worst case scenarios of global warming. See eg. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/fracking-digging-drilling-paris-agreement-fossil-fuels https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/fracki...
    - dTal 10y ago
      That would be Jevon's Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
HNSucksAss 10y ago
"My work is a bit meta at the moment." That doesn't mean anything. So we can infer that you're not doing shit.

angersock 10y ago

Oh, so you're optimizing and not innovating.

fjdhcjjenxncnd 10y ago
Actually no. I'm making the software that did not previously exist. Others down the road can then use it to produce better performing products. Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats".
- angersock 10y ago
  Like, what special sauce do you bring to the table that ANSYS or Solidworks or whatever FEA package people use for optimization studies doesn't already do--and probably do well enough? You dismiss twitter, snapchat clones, whatever when they do deliver actual value to people just because they don't meet some arbitrary feelgood measure of "innovative". A measure that coincidentally happens to somehow make your cute little tool worldchanging! Industry, especially in mech and AEC, is hilariously slow to change workflows once they have something that works. Your product is probably going to get lost in the noise, all with you puttering around going "but but but I was innovating! Why don't people support innovation?!". You're coming off as a holier-than-thou "srs bsns" engineer when you should have some humility. Maybe post under your real account.
  - fjdhcjjenxncnd 10y ago
    It's still very much a research implementation, but I'm making global black box combinatoric methods which can be used where analytic optimization methods are not available, e.g. multi-objective optimization. >Maybe post under your real account. I have no real account. I always make a new one every few posts partly for privacy reasons, and partly because I enjoy reading posts like your own. :^)
    - arcanus 10y ago
      As someone who did numerical optimization for my doctoral thesis (also mechE), this sounds more amenable to publications than a start up. Are you trying to commercialize?
    - mappu 10y ago
      > I have no real account. I always make a new one every few posts partly for privacy reasons This is the logical next step after random site-specific passwords. The login/logout workflow does make this inconvenient though. Browser extension idea? Chan boards use thread-specific IDs or thread-specific tripcode salts to achieve much the same thing - privacy by default, but identifiers when it helps you follow a conversation.
- user5994461 10y ago
  > Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats". Actually. By reducing the consumption of oil, it becomes cheaper to travel and people will travel more... increasing the consumption of oil. Game word in point: You might be having the opposing effect of what you think :D
  - fulafel 10y ago
    It's known that we can't dig up and burning all profitably extractable hydrocarbons, if we want to avoid the worst case scenarios of global warming. See eg. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/fracking-digging-drilling-paris-agreement-fossil-fuels https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/fracki...
  - dTal 10y ago
    That would be Jevon's Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

HNSucksAss 10y ago

"My work is a bit meta at the moment." That doesn't mean anything. So we can infer that you're not doing shit.