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> Yes Amazon (which is not based in Silicon Valley) made online shopping better. However, it is fundamentally just another middleman, and will not stand the tes

by imgabe 6y ago

> Yes Amazon (which is not based in Silicon Valley) made online shopping better. However, it is fundamentally just another middleman, and will not stand the test of time. Personally, I think Amazon's legacy will be AWS rather than online shopping. More than anyone else they've turned computing power into a utility. Like electricity this has made whole new types of businesses possible. Edit: Still reading the article and want to note I don't mean this as a crticism. I'm really enjoying this story.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jes5199 6y ago
an innovative way to become a middleman, renting people free software, re-centralizing computing power, and un-democratizing hardware
- hailwren 6y ago
  The problem with most of this crypto-anarchist rhetoric is that it establishes a value system that does not reflect the realities of the real world. decentralization, democracy = good and the opposite = bad runs up against fundamental value propositions of economies of scale and specialization
  - jes5199 6y ago
    crypto? I thought I was being overt. Amazon’s economy of scale does capture a lot of value. The question becomes: how well does economic value align with our human values? One of my best friends mentors software development interns at Amazon. We talk a lot, they’re using it as mechanism to empower people who had otherwise been trapped in low-wage jobs, and generally I think that’s a good thing. Recently they tell me that one of their new interns was, until recently, a practicing medical doctor, in another country. Having this person optimizing user experience on a shopping system cannot possibly be as socially valuable as treating disease. But here we are. There’s another article on HN today questioning whether the current crop of tech companies embody the old Silicon Valley values that created our field. I think the answer is: they cannot possibly embody them all because some of the core values of hacker culture are contradictory, and a strong tradition of anti-capitalism, radical democratization, and anti-authoritanism go back to at least the 1960s computer programmer culture, maybe even further back
    - imgabe 6y ago
      > Having this person optimizing user experience on a shopping system cannot possibly be as socially valuable as treating disease. It's possible that that person finds more fulfillment from programming than from treating disease and that's all that should matter. People are free and should not be forced to work in some field they don't want to because somebody else decides that's more socially valuable.
    - Proven 6y ago
      It's not Amazon's problem that some government assholes perpetuate a system in which a medical doctor can't earn more than $2,000 in 20 days, or a patient can't pay $3 to see the doctor.
    - hailwren 6y ago
      I was reacting the specific 'decentralization' mantra that is a linguistic artifact of cryptocurrencies. > how well does economic value align with our human values? I couldn't begin to define what 'our human values' even means. > one of their new interns was, until recently, a practicing medical doctor Is your argument that there is no person practicing medicine who would produce more utility for society by writing software at Amazon? Because that seems like a pretty extreme position.
michaelbrave 6y ago
Not all innovations need to be what we consider modern tech. I've always viewed Amazon as the modern equivalent of what Sears was, what Sears did with railroad and mail order Amazon did similar with the internet. It will likely last at least 50 years. Though you are right, I think the part that will survive the longest and have the largest impact will be AWS more than the Amazon marketplace itself.

by imgabe 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jes5199 6y ago

an innovative way to become a middleman, renting people free software, re-centralizing computing power, and un-democratizing hardware

hailwren 6y ago
The problem with most of this crypto-anarchist rhetoric is that it establishes a value system that does not reflect the realities of the real world. decentralization, democracy = good and the opposite = bad runs up against fundamental value propositions of economies of scale and specialization
- jes5199 6y ago
  crypto? I thought I was being overt. Amazon’s economy of scale does capture a lot of value. The question becomes: how well does economic value align with our human values? One of my best friends mentors software development interns at Amazon. We talk a lot, they’re using it as mechanism to empower people who had otherwise been trapped in low-wage jobs, and generally I think that’s a good thing. Recently they tell me that one of their new interns was, until recently, a practicing medical doctor, in another country. Having this person optimizing user experience on a shopping system cannot possibly be as socially valuable as treating disease. But here we are. There’s another article on HN today questioning whether the current crop of tech companies embody the old Silicon Valley values that created our field. I think the answer is: they cannot possibly embody them all because some of the core values of hacker culture are contradictory, and a strong tradition of anti-capitalism, radical democratization, and anti-authoritanism go back to at least the 1960s computer programmer culture, maybe even further back
  - imgabe 6y ago
    > Having this person optimizing user experience on a shopping system cannot possibly be as socially valuable as treating disease. It's possible that that person finds more fulfillment from programming than from treating disease and that's all that should matter. People are free and should not be forced to work in some field they don't want to because somebody else decides that's more socially valuable.
  - Proven 6y ago
    It's not Amazon's problem that some government assholes perpetuate a system in which a medical doctor can't earn more than $2,000 in 20 days, or a patient can't pay $3 to see the doctor.
  - hailwren 6y ago
    I was reacting the specific 'decentralization' mantra that is a linguistic artifact of cryptocurrencies. > how well does economic value align with our human values? I couldn't begin to define what 'our human values' even means. > one of their new interns was, until recently, a practicing medical doctor Is your argument that there is no person practicing medicine who would produce more utility for society by writing software at Amazon? Because that seems like a pretty extreme position.

michaelbrave 6y ago

Not all innovations need to be what we consider modern tech. I've always viewed Amazon as the modern equivalent of what Sears was, what Sears did with railroad and mail order Amazon did similar with the internet. It will likely last at least 50 years. Though you are right, I think the part that will survive the longest and have the largest impact will be AWS more than the Amazon marketplace itself.