4 ms·
It's telling how out of touch the evaluators of these things are that the grand winner designed a tool that's been in use by fire services for decades. (Softwar
by ludston 2mo ago
It's telling how out of touch the evaluators of these things are that the grand winner designed a tool that's been in use by fire services for decades. (Software that predicts fires based on lightening strikes). But you slap LLM on it, and assert that somehow you can replace the arborists and helicopter pilots with drones (as if the human piloting the thing is the expensive part of a multi million dollar vehicle hauling tonnes of water around anyway) and that tricks non-professionals into thinking you're disrupting a field.
- georgefrowny 2mo agoThere's a whole class of software people who think the rest of the world is a bunch of pitiful and sadly ignorant apes stuck in the past who just need the loving administration of the clarity, vision and genius of the software engineer to fix all their problems.
- phoronixrly 2mo agoThis is the reason why the rest of the world rolls their eyes when a software developer starts speaking... There are the people doing actual work and science to move society forward, and then there's the people who stroll up and confidently peddle their idea to replace them with a barely thought-through app...
- acheong08 2mo agoThe scary part to me is that it actually works. Not practically, but that upper management and whatnot actually buy it. Most early stage startups around me right now are built on the premise of replacing groups of people. There's a startup strapping sensors and cameras onto blue collar workers in developing countries to take "egocentric" data and train "world models" to the get robots to replace skilled physical labor. Lots of "ambient capture" to then automate away the work of the employees getting recorded. Even what I'm building right now, which was initially just a tool to help me with my ADHD and memory problems is slowly getting twisted towards the same direction based on where the money is. I would love to know how to build a company that serves real humans rather than the accumulation of capital and the extractive nature of corporations.
- hamper653 2mo ago> I would love to know how to build a company that serves real humans rather than the accumulation of capital and the extractive nature of corporations. Wouldn’t we all. It is not possible, actually.
- latexr 2mo ago> Wouldn’t we all. Clearly not. Otherwise Bezos wouldn’t create a culture where employees feel the need to pee in bottles and continue working while a colleague is dead on the floor. > It is not possible, actually. I don’t believe that. Sure, if you want to be filthy rich you’ll exploit people, but there are plenty of smaller companies who treat their employees well (some owners have even left their companies to their employees) and genuinely care about customers as people.
- hamper653 2mo agoYeah, and these ♥genuinely-caring♥ capitalists always end up either bankrupt, or Bezos. > I don’t believe that. Of course not. Bezos is spending a lot to make sure you don’t.
- latexr 2mo agoI don’t even know what you’re talking about. Why would Bezos be spending money to make me believe it is possible for small companies who can treat their employees well, all the while making me think even worse of him for how he treats his own employees? That makes no sense.
- hamper653 2mo agoBezos doesn’t want you to abolish private property. If you believe it possible to build a company that serves real humans rather than the accumulation of capital and the extractive nature of corporations, you will try that instead.
- acheong08 2mo agoI'm living in this ecosystem right now, and I see this every day. The mentality that "normal people" are beneath them. I live a fairly social life and enjoy going to karaoke and going on hikes with friends or strangers not in tech/startups, and many of the others in the residency simply can't understand why I'd want to interact with people they perceive as less intelligent than them. "Think about it. Think of the most average person you know. 50% are more stupid than them. And you won't get any value out of speaking to those"
- nehal3m 2mo agoI’d take a nice person of average intelligence over a smart asshole any day of the week.
- soblemprolver 2mo agoAt your service :)
- 4thguy 2mo ago> "Think about it. Think of the most average person you know. 50% are more stupid than them. And you won't get any value out of speaking to those" That right there is very telling. They don't know the difference between median and average
- hamper653 2mo ago> [They] simply can't understand why I'd want to interact with people they perceive as less intelligent than them. "Who would you have me speak to instead? It’s not like I’m surrounded with geniuses anyway."
- latexr 2mo ago> "Think about it. Think of the most average person you know. 50% are more stupid than them. And you won't get any value out of speaking to those" Possible response: “And yet they’re all still more intelligent, compassionate, interesting, and a better company than you.” There are many others: “The average person I know is pretty smart. I’m sorry to hear about your family, though.” Or: “You’re right, I do indeed not get any value out of listening to you. I feel stupider already.” Alright, alright, let’s actually try to be kind and change some minds: “There are different kinds of intelligence, and everyone has a full life rich in perspectives that we know nothing about. Making a blanket statement that someone we never met is “stupid” is reductive, lacking in empathy, and stifling to our own personal growth. To put it in your terms: What’s the best <relevant tech stack>? The answer is, of course, that it depends. They all have strengths and weaknesses and to be good you must learn to identify what those are. People are similar. If you only hang out with one type of person, you are the proverbial hammer who sees everything and everyone as nails.”
- ares623 2mo agoAmazingly well put.
- orthoxerox 2mo agoI think I've read a short story by Cory Doctorow that explored this misconception.
- root-parent 2mo agoYou just described every single YC company.
- vasco 2mo agoThe human pilot is not an expensive part of it but it is a dangerous job and when mistakes or issues happen you lose a life you didn't need to lose. Out of all jobs to eliminate that doesn't sound so bad.
- Fizz43 2mo agoIts kind of insulting how many people look at other industries and think they can "solve" the problems with their simple solution. As if the people in these industries havent been thinking about this problem for decades.
- Ekaros 2mo agoReminds me again of crypto. Lot of stuff being done in banking and payments happens for a reason. Or because someone from outside like politicians meddled into it. And forget that people are extremely gross when it comes to getting their bank balance wrong...
- vanviegen 2mo agoIndustries can be trapped in a local optimum. It sometimes a fresh take (and a heavy bag of investor money) is needed to get to a higher level.
- raphman 2mo agoYes. But in my limited experience, the practically useful fresh takes come from people who have immersed themselves deeply into a problem, not from people who spend a weekend with ChatGPT.
- dgellow 2mo agoI’ve been at multiple hackathons over the past 15y that rewarded impractical or copies of existing products. And I think that’s fine? A hackathon doesn’t have to be about creating something revolutionary IMHO. Still LLMs do remove most of the fun of hackathons
- vanviegen 2mo agoA large part of the reason that these are multi million dollar vehicles is that it needs to safely sustain a human pilot in it. Also, that pilot does need to get paid on the 350 days a year that there are no forest fires to be extinguished.
- wartywhoa23 2mo agoA fuse can sit 99.9999999% of its lifetime in a circuit doing nothing, should we get rid of fuses?
- georgefrowny 2mo agoI've literally heard someone say that we should remove the protection circuits because it's two dollars of parts protecting under a dollar of amplifiers. Yes, the amplifiers are cheap, but the rest of the board isn't and if the amplifiers get blown up that's 1000 dollars in support costs and RMAs, bad customer opinion and a line stoppage to boot.
- vanviegen 2mo agoIf a fuse can be replaced by something that's a lot cheaper and also effective.. why not?
- wartywhoa23 2mo agoStochastic fuse with false positives and false negatives? No, thanks!