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But even working on a simple CRUD app can push an industry forward. There is so much more incremental progress to be made, which pushes the economy upwards, tha

But even working on a simple CRUD app can push an industry forward. There is so much more incremental progress to be made, which pushes the economy upwards, than just the “big name” hot ideas (like cancer). There are still so many low hanging fruit that even simple technology can improve

BlargMcLarg 4y ago
Yes, a lot of "simple CRUD apps" can push an industry forward. A lot of simple stuff can also devolve into downright predatory practices which, despite making money, are anything but progress in the grander scheme of things. There's also the argument tons of "simple CRUD apps" exist because of a focus on the short term, rather than the long term. Or they exist to fill a "perceived hole" which is really just bureaucracy being bureaucracy. To name a different example, management has absolutely exploded. It's arguable whether this explosion has freed up brains more, or instead sucked up brain power. Meanwhile, most management jobs do pay well, to the point it's hard to consider a manager living in poverty. Personally, I believe we could easily slash management in half, permanently destroying those jobs and the accompanied bureaucracy to free up the brains, but that would result in those individuals having to compete for different jobs, maybe even less desirable jobs which put them back into poverty. Regardless, the point is poverty and freeing up brains for innovation aren't necessarily correlated or even causal. They can even be negatively correlated. Solving poverty isn't the only requirement to free up brains, if that is a societal goal. That's all.
taneq 4y ago
This is what so many techie people don't get. The end user doesn't give a FUCK if you're 100% memory safe or you use a RESTful API or your app is HIJINX(TM) COMPLIANT or whatever. They want a button they can click which fixes their problem. If you give them that, then they win, so you win. 99% of the actual, serious, important problems right now are really really simple and have really dumb simple solutions. Not always the exactly optimal solution but there's one there that will do 90% of what anyone cares about, which we can do right now, but haven't yet.

BlargMcLarg 4y ago

Yes, a lot of "simple CRUD apps" can push an industry forward. A lot of simple stuff can also devolve into downright predatory practices which, despite making money, are anything but progress in the grander scheme of things. There's also the argument tons of "simple CRUD apps" exist because of a focus on the short term, rather than the long term. Or they exist to fill a "perceived hole" which is really just bureaucracy being bureaucracy. To name a different example, management has absolutely exploded. It's arguable whether this explosion has freed up brains more, or instead sucked up brain power. Meanwhile, most management jobs do pay well, to the point it's hard to consider a manager living in poverty. Personally, I believe we could easily slash management in half, permanently destroying those jobs and the accompanied bureaucracy to free up the brains, but that would result in those individuals having to compete for different jobs, maybe even less desirable jobs which put them back into poverty. Regardless, the point is poverty and freeing up brains for innovation aren't necessarily correlated or even causal. They can even be negatively correlated. Solving poverty isn't the only requirement to free up brains, if that is a societal goal. That's all.

taneq 4y ago

This is what so many techie people don't get. The end user doesn't give a FUCK if you're 100% memory safe or you use a RESTful API or your app is HIJINX(TM) COMPLIANT or whatever. They want a button they can click which fixes their problem. If you give them that, then they win, so you win. 99% of the actual, serious, important problems right now are really really simple and have really dumb simple solutions. Not always the exactly optimal solution but there's one there that will do 90% of what anyone cares about, which we can do right now, but haven't yet.