7 ms·

The long, slow, rotten march of progress

85 points by pmcpinto 9y ago

redm 9y ago
It's not trivial to get money into the cryptocurrency system as it is even with trusted companies like Coinbase. For it to come closer to ubiquity, it's going to need to be trusted companies to help money enter the market and for it to be used as universally as VISA or Mastercard. Those payment points (Best Buys, Amazon, etc.) and hard currency exchange points (CoinBase, Gemini, etc.) are always going to be subject to regulation by local governments, as they should be. Trusted points and regulation/taxes doesn't remove the benefits (distributed nature, smart contracts, and visibility) of a cryptocurrency like Ethereum. They are going to grow based on big corporate support and adoption. In fact, it's already happening: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/bigger-than-bitcoin-enterprise-ethereum-alliance-grows-in-size.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/bigger-than-bitcoin-enterpris...
- relyio 9y ago
  It is actually surprisingly difficult. I have been trying to open a Coinbase account for like two weeks. First week I was stuck in a limbo state where my attempts at adding my visa were stuck (because of a bug on their end - took them long enough to fix, must be interesting being VP of Operations at Coinbase). Now, I have finally added it, but it is in a "pending state" and the verification process is taking too long than it is worth. How do people do it (buying BTC, or ETH)?
  - redm 9y ago
    I have the same problem but imagine the alternatives. One reason it's so bad the last 2 weeks is the volume. The US exchanges have been hammered. Week to verify my bank on Coinbase, a week to verify my ID on Gemini.
siliconc0w 9y ago
Enjoyable, if verbose, read. Reminds me a bit of American Gods. There are a handful of startups that are offering genuine attempts at innovation and progress and, of course, a lot of garbage. It feels relatively slow moving until you realize how much you work differently, eat differently, drive differently than just a few years before. Like being slowly boiled alive in a bathtub.
- crpatino 9y ago
  Would you mind to clarify what you mean by "X definitely"? I think you are on to something, but cannot fully grasp wha you mean.
  - kornish 9y ago
    You may have misread: the post said "differently" and not "definitely".
    - siliconc0w 9y ago
      To be fair it did and I corrected it - slight dyslexia
  - skookumchuck 9y ago
    Take driving, for example. 1. I drive a lot less, because I can run errands online rather than having to go somewhere, like depositing a check. I do nearly all shopping online now. 2. The navigator apps eliminate the map-in-my-lap, and I've found more efficient routes to drive places than I used to. 3. I no longer have to give out detailed directions to get to my residence. 4. I don't go to the movie theater anymore.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ShannonAlther 9y ago
Normally I don't like Sam Kriss' writing, and here it's because of the civil war comparison that just feels ham-fisted — that said, one can appreciate how "learn to code" is not the universal solution (especially when it's just thrown out as a conversation-stopper).
- ThomPete 9y ago
  In general learning to code is up there with learning to read and write and math as it can be applied to almost any area or industry and be used to do simple scripting to advanced systems development. You dont have to become a developer but understanding how to "talk with technology" is imo one of the most important general skills one can learn.
  - tormeh 9y ago
    >In general learning to code is up there with learning to read and write and math I think most people only need to read and write. Many skip writing. In many intellectual circles it is even regarded as slightly charming to be innumerate. These are people who take pride in their knowledge. How can math and coding be applied to a retail job? A shift worker at Zara isn't going to be allowed to integrate their code with the Inditex backend.
    - ThomPete 9y ago
      I think you are thinking about programming too litterally. Its more a question of learning to "think in technology" i.e. to at least be able to take advantage of technology.
  - aswanson 9y ago
    But that's not the subtext of how it's being used when journalist/political people/noncoders use it. They specifically are saying a vast majority of people should just learn to program, do it full time, and it will solve all our economic woes. Computer skills are useful, no doubt. But they are not a universal panacea for everyone in the workforce. That inspires a new word for these blurts people mak: Friedmanism, in honor of Tom Friedman of the NYT.
ryandrake 9y ago
The passage about Capitalism not knowing what to do with its capital anymore rings true. We've allowed society to bifurcate into 1. a great many people without, who know exactly what they'd do with an extra $100, and 2. a tiny number of ultra-rich who literally can't figure out what to do with all their money and have run out of possessions to gold-plate and diamond-encrust. What does the end-game look like? When interest rates are perpetually zero and you simply can't squeeze another single dollar out of the masses?
- tormeh 9y ago
  >What does the end-game look like? When interest rates are perpetually zero and you simply can't squeeze another single dollar out of the masses? Pet peeve: Low interest rates somehow hurting the huddled masses. Low interest rates benefit those with loans and hurts those with capital. Poor people are massively more likely to benefit from low interest rates than to be hurt by it.
  - nkabir 9y ago
    Not quite. If you had income generating assets before rates were reduced, you benefited greatly. And credit can still be tight when rates are zero (or negative). Low rates as they stand hurt those that are trying to save.
    - TheCowboy 9y ago
      Artificially increasing interest rates is going to show up in inflation, because no new wealth is being generated. It becomes a wash. No one's wealth is increased.
      - skybrian 9y ago
        Depending on what you mean by "show up in inflation", it sounds like you have cause and effect backwards? The Fed increases interest rates to act as a brake on the economy (less investment) when they think they need to reduce inflation.
imgabe 9y ago
> Code What? To Do What? And Why? Seriously? Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. Diseases, even curable ones, are killing people every day and you have to ask "To Do What?"?? Give me a break. Stop gazing at your navel for 10 seconds and go out and interact with the world. I guarantee you'll find a problem that needs fixing.
- accountyaccount 9y ago
  Are you suggesting we rebuild our bridges with code?
  - lapsock 9y ago
    yeah man code is magic everyone should learn how to code
  - imgabe 9y ago
    Believe it or not, quite a bit of software is used in the design and construction of bridges, much of it has a lot of room for improvement.
    - accountyaccount 9y ago
      Sure, but you're not getting anything done with software alone.
- lapsock 9y ago
  People not having food or water sounds more like a political problem than a problem that can be solved with code.
  - Abekkus 9y ago
    Political campaigns are being won by code.
- mehwoot 9y ago
  Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. And what % of tech startups are tackling these problems?
abalashov 9y ago
I'm a dropped-out philosophy major with a humanities family and cultural background, and wearing what occasionally feels like the impostor's mantle of a software engineer. This leads to a lot of amusing, sometimes infuriating cultural conflicts. I frequently have this type of conversation with colleagues in my profession, and it's frustrating to see all the technocratic utopianism and narrowly conceived TEDdie-ism that often obtains on the other side. Lately, I've resorted to making the point about mindfulness and purpose through the compact vehicle of jest, since business interactions seldom organically accommodate discussion of serious ideas and issues. In our hipster age of sham social capital, deniable low-calorie intellectual commitments, and instant disavowal of anything that begets complications down the road, oblique jokes seem to work better than direct critiques. Something like: - Client: "Our server has had five-nines uptime this past year!" - Me: "But was it running good stuff?" - Client: "What?" - Me: "What's better, a highly available server sitting idle or running crap, or a less reliable server running good stuff? Quality over quantity, right?" - Client: "Uhhh..." - Me: "Think about it. Is the measure of a server really in how long it's been running? The essence of a server is that it serves, yeah? Availability is a secondary—if important—quality." - Client: "... okay ...?" - Me: "So, it's not enough to just be up. The host has to run good stuff. Has the server been running good stuff?" - Client: "Erm... it runs our middleware? Are you asking if it's good code?" - Me: "No, I'm asking if it's a good thing to run, although I suppose for a thing to be good to run, it has to be written well enough. Bad code doesn't run well." - Client: "WTF?" - Me: "Is your middleware good stuff?" - Client: "What does that even mean?" - Me: "Doesn't it bother you that you don't know?" - Client: "... I guess I never really thought about it like that." It's what I encourage everyone to do. Bring a little ancient Greece to the cloud data centre.
- pram 9y ago
  Sounds tedious.
  - abalashov 9y ago
    Very!
    - deleted 9y ago
Lagged2Death 9y ago
"Uber for dogs" has been around for a few years. https://wagwalking.com/ So it's not just real, it's actually bordering on passé. Now, does that make the essay sillier or does it make it scarier?

85 points by pmcpinto 9y ago

redm 9y ago

It's not trivial to get money into the cryptocurrency system as it is even with trusted companies like Coinbase. For it to come closer to ubiquity, it's going to need to be trusted companies to help money enter the market and for it to be used as universally as VISA or Mastercard. Those payment points (Best Buys, Amazon, etc.) and hard currency exchange points (CoinBase, Gemini, etc.) are always going to be subject to regulation by local governments, as they should be. Trusted points and regulation/taxes doesn't remove the benefits (distributed nature, smart contracts, and visibility) of a cryptocurrency like Ethereum. They are going to grow based on big corporate support and adoption. In fact, it's already happening: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/bigger-than-bitcoin-enterprise-ethereum-alliance-grows-in-size.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/bigger-than-bitcoin-enterpris...

relyio 9y ago
It is actually surprisingly difficult. I have been trying to open a Coinbase account for like two weeks. First week I was stuck in a limbo state where my attempts at adding my visa were stuck (because of a bug on their end - took them long enough to fix, must be interesting being VP of Operations at Coinbase). Now, I have finally added it, but it is in a "pending state" and the verification process is taking too long than it is worth. How do people do it (buying BTC, or ETH)?
- redm 9y ago
  I have the same problem but imagine the alternatives. One reason it's so bad the last 2 weeks is the volume. The US exchanges have been hammered. Week to verify my bank on Coinbase, a week to verify my ID on Gemini.

siliconc0w 9y ago

Enjoyable, if verbose, read. Reminds me a bit of American Gods. There are a handful of startups that are offering genuine attempts at innovation and progress and, of course, a lot of garbage. It feels relatively slow moving until you realize how much you work differently, eat differently, drive differently than just a few years before. Like being slowly boiled alive in a bathtub.

crpatino 9y ago
Would you mind to clarify what you mean by "X definitely"? I think you are on to something, but cannot fully grasp wha you mean.
- kornish 9y ago
  You may have misread: the post said "differently" and not "definitely".
  - siliconc0w 9y ago
    To be fair it did and I corrected it - slight dyslexia
- skookumchuck 9y ago
  Take driving, for example. 1. I drive a lot less, because I can run errands online rather than having to go somewhere, like depositing a check. I do nearly all shopping online now. 2. The navigator apps eliminate the map-in-my-lap, and I've found more efficient routes to drive places than I used to. 3. I no longer have to give out detailed directions to get to my residence. 4. I don't go to the movie theater anymore.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ShannonAlther 9y ago

Normally I don't like Sam Kriss' writing, and here it's because of the civil war comparison that just feels ham-fisted — that said, one can appreciate how "learn to code" is not the universal solution (especially when it's just thrown out as a conversation-stopper).

ThomPete 9y ago
In general learning to code is up there with learning to read and write and math as it can be applied to almost any area or industry and be used to do simple scripting to advanced systems development. You dont have to become a developer but understanding how to "talk with technology" is imo one of the most important general skills one can learn.
- tormeh 9y ago
  >In general learning to code is up there with learning to read and write and math I think most people only need to read and write. Many skip writing. In many intellectual circles it is even regarded as slightly charming to be innumerate. These are people who take pride in their knowledge. How can math and coding be applied to a retail job? A shift worker at Zara isn't going to be allowed to integrate their code with the Inditex backend.
  - ThomPete 9y ago
    I think you are thinking about programming too litterally. Its more a question of learning to "think in technology" i.e. to at least be able to take advantage of technology.
- aswanson 9y ago
  But that's not the subtext of how it's being used when journalist/political people/noncoders use it. They specifically are saying a vast majority of people should just learn to program, do it full time, and it will solve all our economic woes. Computer skills are useful, no doubt. But they are not a universal panacea for everyone in the workforce. That inspires a new word for these blurts people mak: Friedmanism, in honor of Tom Friedman of the NYT.

ryandrake 9y ago

The passage about Capitalism not knowing what to do with its capital anymore rings true. We've allowed society to bifurcate into 1. a great many people without, who know exactly what they'd do with an extra $100, and 2. a tiny number of ultra-rich who literally can't figure out what to do with all their money and have run out of possessions to gold-plate and diamond-encrust. What does the end-game look like? When interest rates are perpetually zero and you simply can't squeeze another single dollar out of the masses?

tormeh 9y ago
>What does the end-game look like? When interest rates are perpetually zero and you simply can't squeeze another single dollar out of the masses? Pet peeve: Low interest rates somehow hurting the huddled masses. Low interest rates benefit those with loans and hurts those with capital. Poor people are massively more likely to benefit from low interest rates than to be hurt by it.
- nkabir 9y ago
  Not quite. If you had income generating assets before rates were reduced, you benefited greatly. And credit can still be tight when rates are zero (or negative). Low rates as they stand hurt those that are trying to save.
  - TheCowboy 9y ago
    Artificially increasing interest rates is going to show up in inflation, because no new wealth is being generated. It becomes a wash. No one's wealth is increased.
    - skybrian 9y ago
      Depending on what you mean by "show up in inflation", it sounds like you have cause and effect backwards? The Fed increases interest rates to act as a brake on the economy (less investment) when they think they need to reduce inflation.

imgabe 9y ago

> Code What? To Do What? And Why? Seriously? Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. Diseases, even curable ones, are killing people every day and you have to ask "To Do What?"?? Give me a break. Stop gazing at your navel for 10 seconds and go out and interact with the world. I guarantee you'll find a problem that needs fixing.

accountyaccount 9y ago
Are you suggesting we rebuild our bridges with code?
- lapsock 9y ago
  yeah man code is magic everyone should learn how to code
- imgabe 9y ago
  Believe it or not, quite a bit of software is used in the design and construction of bridges, much of it has a lot of room for improvement.
  - accountyaccount 9y ago
    Sure, but you're not getting anything done with software alone.
lapsock 9y ago
People not having food or water sounds more like a political problem than a problem that can be solved with code.
- Abekkus 9y ago
  Political campaigns are being won by code.
mehwoot 9y ago
Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. And what % of tech startups are tackling these problems?

abalashov 9y ago

I'm a dropped-out philosophy major with a humanities family and cultural background, and wearing what occasionally feels like the impostor's mantle of a software engineer. This leads to a lot of amusing, sometimes infuriating cultural conflicts. I frequently have this type of conversation with colleagues in my profession, and it's frustrating to see all the technocratic utopianism and narrowly conceived TEDdie-ism that often obtains on the other side. Lately, I've resorted to making the point about mindfulness and purpose through the compact vehicle of jest, since business interactions seldom organically accommodate discussion of serious ideas and issues. In our hipster age of sham social capital, deniable low-calorie intellectual commitments, and instant disavowal of anything that begets complications down the road, oblique jokes seem to work better than direct critiques. Something like: - Client: "Our server has had five-nines uptime this past year!" - Me: "But was it running good stuff?" - Client: "What?" - Me: "What's better, a highly available server sitting idle or running crap, or a less reliable server running good stuff? Quality over quantity, right?" - Client: "Uhhh..." - Me: "Think about it. Is the measure of a server really in how long it's been running? The essence of a server is that it serves, yeah? Availability is a secondary—if important—quality." - Client: "... okay ...?" - Me: "So, it's not enough to just be up. The host has to run good stuff. Has the server been running good stuff?" - Client: "Erm... it runs our middleware? Are you asking if it's good code?" - Me: "No, I'm asking if it's a good thing to run, although I suppose for a thing to be good to run, it has to be written well enough. Bad code doesn't run well." - Client: "WTF?" - Me: "Is your middleware good stuff?" - Client: "What does that even mean?" - Me: "Doesn't it bother you that you don't know?" - Client: "... I guess I never really thought about it like that." It's what I encourage everyone to do. Bring a little ancient Greece to the cloud data centre.

pram 9y ago
Sounds tedious.
- abalashov 9y ago
  Very!
  - deleted 9y ago

Lagged2Death 9y ago

"Uber for dogs" has been around for a few years. https://wagwalking.com/ So it's not just real, it's actually bordering on passé. Now, does that make the essay sillier or does it make it scarier?