3 ms·
BTW, I wasn't against the idea of a right-sized approach, or against your previous work. Very much in favor of both those things. Your work obviously did very
by pp19dd 8y ago
BTW, I wasn't against the idea of a right-sized approach, or against your previous work. Very much in favor of both those things. Your work obviously did very well. So did this automation 30 years ago. My whole original remark is about a temporal dimension, which is why I brought up the lights to anchor them to today.
Back then, you could do things more freely with less capable and available hardware. Different environment. Concept of computers was scratching the surface of what they could do for us, and people didn't have a notion of liabilities. And yes, the student didn't install the HVAC systems, but how did tele-operated harwdware interface with it? They didn't have echo dots and knockoff power plugs back then.
Today, you have all that available hardware but can't realistically do things as freely. Suffice it to say that the environment has clammed up on all fronts for an amateur to enter an industry. In some cases rightfully so (only experts for surgeries, plumbing and wiring for me please). In others, egregiously wrong barriers. For example, commonly the first thing that happens in a public institution or agency is that the losing bidder files FOIA requests trying to litigate why their solution was passed up and by whom, including copies of correspondence between them. Imagine having to deal with that dimension.
Back to traffic lights: for something so rudimentary yet so vital, it costs millions of dollars for a handful of intersections, and they're everywhere. Nearly a prime candidate for a four raspberry pi solution, right? You'd think someone would have attempted it.
- coldtea 8y ago>Today, you have all that available hardware but can't realistically do things as freely. Suffice it to say that the environment has clammed up on all fronts for an amateur to enter an industry. In some cases rightfully so (only experts for surgeries, plumbing and wiring for me please). In others, egregiously wrong barriers. I agree, and I think that's the key insight in all this. For some things the extra legislation, rules etc make sense. In many other cases, they complicate things, and can even end up delivering not just a costlier but also a less effective outcome (e.g. the 100M government website when a 2-3M one made by a small team would do better).