4 ms·

Just looking through the paper makes my head spin. The Japanese are undoubtedly the most skilled engineers in the world.

williadc 4y ago
[flagged]
- lizardactivist 4y ago
  No.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - xpe 4y ago
    > If you're only going to post once a month or so make it count. I agree in a sense. Life is short. Our online comments probably will last longer than us. What do we want to put out into the world? We can use comments to learn, or we can respond uncharitably. The former is more worthwhile in most cases. [1] inclusive-or
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- xpe 4y ago
  >> Just looking through the paper makes my head spin. The Japanese are undoubtedly the most skilled engineers in the world. > May I have your permission to use this as an example of a logical fallacy? _If_ the comment was "Just looking through the paper makes my head spin; therefore, the Japanese are undoubtedly the most skilled engineers in the world." then it would be a logical fallacy. As written, one has to make an _uncharitable_ assumption in order to classify it as a fallacy. A _charitable_ reading is that the author has other experience suggesting the ascendancy of Japanese engineers. Such a mindset would open the door to interesting conversation, such as "What else have you seen that impresses you about Japanese engineering?" That might lead to everyone learning more, and, heck, even being inspired. Try this next time, please?
- dang 4y ago
  Please don't be a jerk in HN comments. We're trying for something else here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
keepquestioning 4y ago
Japanese and also German. Old-school, driven by craft, not obsessed about clicks and profit. Just incredible utility to society and civilization. Thank god for these countries.
- rng_civ 4y ago
  > Old-school, driven by craft, not obsessed about clicks and profit. While this has been the prevailing sentiment for Germany, I wouldn't be so sure after the Volkswagen emission fiasco. At least Volkswagen seems pretty eager to work around QA laws...
- xpe 4y ago
  There is an opinion piece in The Atlantic highlighting how important hands-on building (i.e. manufacturing) is for long-term innovation. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/science-technology-vaccine-invention-history/672227/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/science... """The U.S. remains the world's R&D factory, but when it comes to building, we're plainly going backwards.""" """For many decades, the American government has focused overwhelmingly on discovery rather than deployment.""" """And then, around 1980, we basically stopped building,” Jesse Jenkins, who researches energy policy at Princeton, told me. In the past 40 years, he said, the U.S. has applied several different brakes to our capacity to build what’s already been invented. Under Ronald Reagan, the legacy of successful public-private partnerships was ignored in favor of the simplistic diagnosis that the government was to blame for every major problem. In the ’70s, liberals encouraged the government to pass new environmental regulations to halt pollution and prevent builders from running roughshod over low-income neighborhoods. And then middle-class Americans used these new rules to slow down the construction of new housing, clean-energy projects—just about everything. These reactions were partly understandable; for example, air and water pollution in the ’70s were deadly crises. But “when you combine these big shifts, you basically stop building anything,” Jenkins said.""" Note: If you skim the above article, be aware that "Bush" refers to Vannevar Bush (not George #41 or George #43) in several places.
- xpe 4y ago
  Japan and Germany have also demonstrated terrifying war-making capability and willingness not so long ago. This is consistent with part of your comment ("old-school, driven by craft") but problematic w.r.t. "utility to society and civilization", given the goals of authoritarian regimes, under both a secular demagogue and a supreme divine ruler. The U.S., through IBM, sold Nazi Germany tabulating machines, which made atrocities more "efficient". My point is not to assign blame or simply comment on geopolitics. Rather, I just want to raise awareness that technology and craft exist in a broader context, easily misappropriated and distorted. I hope the technologists of today (us) are the leaders of the future. We should not abdicate key decisions about technology to others. We must get involved with investment, ethics, safety, and regulatory decisions.

williadc 4y ago

[flagged]

lizardactivist 4y ago
No.
jacquesm 4y ago
[flagged]
- xpe 4y ago
  > If you're only going to post once a month or so make it count. I agree in a sense. Life is short. Our online comments probably will last longer than us. What do we want to put out into the world? We can use comments to learn, or we can respond uncharitably. The former is more worthwhile in most cases. [1] inclusive-or
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
xpe 4y ago
>> Just looking through the paper makes my head spin. The Japanese are undoubtedly the most skilled engineers in the world. > May I have your permission to use this as an example of a logical fallacy? _If_ the comment was "Just looking through the paper makes my head spin; therefore, the Japanese are undoubtedly the most skilled engineers in the world." then it would be a logical fallacy. As written, one has to make an _uncharitable_ assumption in order to classify it as a fallacy. A _charitable_ reading is that the author has other experience suggesting the ascendancy of Japanese engineers. Such a mindset would open the door to interesting conversation, such as "What else have you seen that impresses you about Japanese engineering?" That might lead to everyone learning more, and, heck, even being inspired. Try this next time, please?
dang 4y ago
Please don't be a jerk in HN comments. We're trying for something else here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

keepquestioning 4y ago

Japanese and also German. Old-school, driven by craft, not obsessed about clicks and profit. Just incredible utility to society and civilization. Thank god for these countries.

rng_civ 4y ago
> Old-school, driven by craft, not obsessed about clicks and profit. While this has been the prevailing sentiment for Germany, I wouldn't be so sure after the Volkswagen emission fiasco. At least Volkswagen seems pretty eager to work around QA laws...
xpe 4y ago
There is an opinion piece in The Atlantic highlighting how important hands-on building (i.e. manufacturing) is for long-term innovation. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/science-technology-vaccine-invention-history/672227/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/science... """The U.S. remains the world's R&D factory, but when it comes to building, we're plainly going backwards.""" """For many decades, the American government has focused overwhelmingly on discovery rather than deployment.""" """And then, around 1980, we basically stopped building,” Jesse Jenkins, who researches energy policy at Princeton, told me. In the past 40 years, he said, the U.S. has applied several different brakes to our capacity to build what’s already been invented. Under Ronald Reagan, the legacy of successful public-private partnerships was ignored in favor of the simplistic diagnosis that the government was to blame for every major problem. In the ’70s, liberals encouraged the government to pass new environmental regulations to halt pollution and prevent builders from running roughshod over low-income neighborhoods. And then middle-class Americans used these new rules to slow down the construction of new housing, clean-energy projects—just about everything. These reactions were partly understandable; for example, air and water pollution in the ’70s were deadly crises. But “when you combine these big shifts, you basically stop building anything,” Jenkins said.""" Note: If you skim the above article, be aware that "Bush" refers to Vannevar Bush (not George #41 or George #43) in several places.
xpe 4y ago
Japan and Germany have also demonstrated terrifying war-making capability and willingness not so long ago. This is consistent with part of your comment ("old-school, driven by craft") but problematic w.r.t. "utility to society and civilization", given the goals of authoritarian regimes, under both a secular demagogue and a supreme divine ruler. The U.S., through IBM, sold Nazi Germany tabulating machines, which made atrocities more "efficient". My point is not to assign blame or simply comment on geopolitics. Rather, I just want to raise awareness that technology and craft exist in a broader context, easily misappropriated and distorted. I hope the technologists of today (us) are the leaders of the future. We should not abdicate key decisions about technology to others. We must get involved with investment, ethics, safety, and regulatory decisions.