3 ms·

I feel the lack of scalability is what ultimately dooms these worthwhile concepts - while the subject has a passion for it and the skill to make it a reality, t

I feel the lack of scalability is what ultimately dooms these worthwhile concepts - while the subject has a passion for it and the skill to make it a reality, transferring that to other people is both difficult and costly. My grandad could come and fix any maintenance issues around my house for free, but it's hardly a solution to low cost housing. Edit: Good on him for doing it though.

likpok 17y ago
Right. You can train a person to put 2x4's together to frame a house fairly easily (it's not hard). Teaching someone to collate nonstandard bits into a structurally sound building would be much harder. The base problem therefore is that while yes he's reusing goods, the houses are only cheap because he values his time so little.
- JacobAldridge 17y ago
  "The houses are only cheap because he values his time so little" I love it when somebody grabs the point I was trying to make, and says it ten times better.
  - Retric 17y ago
    He is makeing a living doing this. The housing is cheep to create, because the materials and land are donated pluss he is not trying to fit a generic mold. At the same time I think he is selling them for less than they are worth.
- gloob 17y ago
  the houses are only cheap because he values his time so little. An alternative way to put it is that the houses are only expensive if he places negligible value on the enjoyment he gets from doing this. Your criticism could be applied to most of my favourite activities, in any case. I don't really see much of a market for a flagrantly-inefficient Scheme-to-32-bit-x86-assembly compiler, but I'm bloody well doing it anyway, because I just like it.
  - nopassrecover 17y ago
    You missed the point. It is not scalable because most people value their time higher.
    - gloob 17y ago
      No; it's not scalable because most people wouldn't gain any enjoyment from it and it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to train them to do it so you can pay them. How much they "value their time" has little to do with it.
      - nopassrecover 17y ago
        Two sides of the same coin. I was just countering what I saw in your comment which was that we can all get by doing the things we love simply for the love of them.
jimbokun 17y ago
Looking at the slideshow, I would say this man is much less an entrepreneur, and much more an artist. He is taking discarded, un-appreciated things, and transforming them and arranging them into something beautiful. That the end result is functional housing for low income people enhances the aesthetic value even more, I think. True, this kind of art does not "scale," but with art that is not necessarily the point. I would also say that much of what he does certainly qualifies as a hack in the sense of ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity.’ And scalable or not, that should certainly be appreciated here. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

likpok 17y ago

Right. You can train a person to put 2x4's together to frame a house fairly easily (it's not hard). Teaching someone to collate nonstandard bits into a structurally sound building would be much harder. The base problem therefore is that while yes he's reusing goods, the houses are only cheap because he values his time so little.

JacobAldridge 17y ago
"The houses are only cheap because he values his time so little" I love it when somebody grabs the point I was trying to make, and says it ten times better.
- Retric 17y ago
  He is makeing a living doing this. The housing is cheep to create, because the materials and land are donated pluss he is not trying to fit a generic mold. At the same time I think he is selling them for less than they are worth.
gloob 17y ago
the houses are only cheap because he values his time so little. An alternative way to put it is that the houses are only expensive if he places negligible value on the enjoyment he gets from doing this. Your criticism could be applied to most of my favourite activities, in any case. I don't really see much of a market for a flagrantly-inefficient Scheme-to-32-bit-x86-assembly compiler, but I'm bloody well doing it anyway, because I just like it.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  You missed the point. It is not scalable because most people value their time higher.
  - gloob 17y ago
    No; it's not scalable because most people wouldn't gain any enjoyment from it and it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to train them to do it so you can pay them. How much they "value their time" has little to do with it.
    - nopassrecover 17y ago
      Two sides of the same coin. I was just countering what I saw in your comment which was that we can all get by doing the things we love simply for the love of them.

jimbokun 17y ago

Looking at the slideshow, I would say this man is much less an entrepreneur, and much more an artist. He is taking discarded, un-appreciated things, and transforming them and arranging them into something beautiful. That the end result is functional housing for low income people enhances the aesthetic value even more, I think. True, this kind of art does not "scale," but with art that is not necessarily the point. I would also say that much of what he does certainly qualifies as a hack in the sense of ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity.’ And scalable or not, that should certainly be appreciated here. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html