3 ms·

Yea just better tech. It’s not a big deal. And it’s all in progress. News just likes to make headlines about anything new so you get scared about it.

legitster 4y ago
I dunno, "we've made things worse but someone will come along and make it better" is not exactly confidence inspiring. Especially given the amount of wasted money/resources you will generate along the way.
- ericmay 4y ago
  Not great framing because nobody made electric vehicles worse, they started off at a certain level of performance and then they'll just improve from there. Now you could say well we made snow plowing worse, and of course in this specific example you'd be right, but you'd be ignoring longer time horizons and not really comparing or accounting for the impact of negative externalities. An easy way to think about it is if you uninstalled an existing window and had tarp on it for a few days while you installed a more energy efficient window. You wouldn't say "things are worse now!", you'd recognize that you're making a change which is better over the long term.
  - itsyaboi 4y ago
    A more apt analogy would be if you removed the existing window without having ordered a new one or found a contractor to install it.
    - ericmay 4y ago
      That's not a good analogy because in this case the snow plows still plow so some snow is still removed. To use your analogy then they would have sold existing plow-capable trucks and not had any to plow, but that wasn't the case.
      - itsyaboi 4y ago
        The tarp is partially effective, just like the electric trucks.
        ericmay 4y ago
        Yes, partially effective until the new energy efficient window is installed. Stop gap measure. Transition period. Etc. I apologize if that wasn't extremely obvious from what I already wrote.
        itsyaboi 4y ago
        No need to apologize. The concern here is that the stopgap measure (the tarp/electric trucks) are implemented too early. The superior replacement window does not yet exist. There is no need to remove the older window and deal with a hole in the side of your house for half a year while you wait for new windows to hit the market.
    - mindover 4y ago
      As an EV owner. I can use my car in about 95% cases: that’s plenty! Way cheaper than gas, no maintenance required, super comfortable, etc. The remaining 5% is when I need to drive somewhere rough or when it’s very cold outside and I have concerns about getting stuck. There is no way I will give up the convenience of EV for those 5%.
  - legitster 4y ago
    > An easy way to think about it is if you uninstalled an existing window and had tarp on it for a few days while you installed a more energy efficient window. A more apt analogy would be if the new window was not even invented yet.
    - ericmay 4y ago
      Ok we'll use gas trucks forever and never change or improve or invent anything new.
      - legitster 4y ago
        ???? Or we can just electrify applications that currently make sense and work from there as the technology improves.
        ericmay 4y ago
        Instead of just being argumentative you should read my original post and the post I responded to.
        notinfuriated 4y ago
        Yeah, I don't understand this pattern of comment-making on the internet. For whatever reason, your comment was downvoted slightly so then you got targeted by people over and over again, even in subsequent replies, with the least generous interpretation of every comment made. I suspect your initial comment also triggered a reaction in saying "it's not a big deal", to which a bunch of people thought, "Oh yeah, well it's a real big deal actually!" despite this being a single article about a very specific situation in NYC, something HN readers will forget about in less than two weeks. I do not see the point in downvotes on this site. It seems like any slightly political article/discussion results in this sort of behavior. Sorry for the meta comment.
        legitster 4y ago

legitster 4y ago

I dunno, "we've made things worse but someone will come along and make it better" is not exactly confidence inspiring. Especially given the amount of wasted money/resources you will generate along the way.

ericmay 4y ago
Not great framing because nobody made electric vehicles worse, they started off at a certain level of performance and then they'll just improve from there. Now you could say well we made snow plowing worse, and of course in this specific example you'd be right, but you'd be ignoring longer time horizons and not really comparing or accounting for the impact of negative externalities. An easy way to think about it is if you uninstalled an existing window and had tarp on it for a few days while you installed a more energy efficient window. You wouldn't say "things are worse now!", you'd recognize that you're making a change which is better over the long term.
- itsyaboi 4y ago
  A more apt analogy would be if you removed the existing window without having ordered a new one or found a contractor to install it.
  - ericmay 4y ago
    That's not a good analogy because in this case the snow plows still plow so some snow is still removed. To use your analogy then they would have sold existing plow-capable trucks and not had any to plow, but that wasn't the case.
    - itsyaboi 4y ago
      The tarp is partially effective, just like the electric trucks.
      - ericmay 4y ago
        Yes, partially effective until the new energy efficient window is installed. Stop gap measure. Transition period. Etc. I apologize if that wasn't extremely obvious from what I already wrote.
        itsyaboi 4y ago
        No need to apologize. The concern here is that the stopgap measure (the tarp/electric trucks) are implemented too early. The superior replacement window does not yet exist. There is no need to remove the older window and deal with a hole in the side of your house for half a year while you wait for new windows to hit the market.
  - mindover 4y ago
    As an EV owner. I can use my car in about 95% cases: that’s plenty! Way cheaper than gas, no maintenance required, super comfortable, etc. The remaining 5% is when I need to drive somewhere rough or when it’s very cold outside and I have concerns about getting stuck. There is no way I will give up the convenience of EV for those 5%.
- legitster 4y ago
  > An easy way to think about it is if you uninstalled an existing window and had tarp on it for a few days while you installed a more energy efficient window. A more apt analogy would be if the new window was not even invented yet.
  - ericmay 4y ago
    Ok we'll use gas trucks forever and never change or improve or invent anything new.
    - legitster 4y ago
      ???? Or we can just electrify applications that currently make sense and work from there as the technology improves.
      - ericmay 4y ago
        Instead of just being argumentative you should read my original post and the post I responded to.
        notinfuriated 4y ago
        Yeah, I don't understand this pattern of comment-making on the internet. For whatever reason, your comment was downvoted slightly so then you got targeted by people over and over again, even in subsequent replies, with the least generous interpretation of every comment made. I suspect your initial comment also triggered a reaction in saying "it's not a big deal", to which a bunch of people thought, "Oh yeah, well it's a real big deal actually!" despite this being a single article about a very specific situation in NYC, something HN readers will forget about in less than two weeks. I do not see the point in downvotes on this site. It seems like any slightly political article/discussion results in this sort of behavior. Sorry for the meta comment.
        legitster 4y ago