I thought this was going to be about the noise, pollution, danger, bullying etc. Ah, no, it's about things that annoy the person on the inside of the car. So if both the people outside and inside the car hate the things, why are we stuck with them?
You could easily avoid every single one of these issues by driving an older bog standard, cheap car rather than one costing tens of thousands. Seems like a no brainer really?
> You could easily avoid every single one of these issues by driving an older bog standard, cheap car rather than one costing tens of thousands. Seems like a no brainer really?
We're already set to pass 1.5C warming in the next couple years, which was supposed to be the best-case scenario as of 10y ago. I don't know if you noticed, but batteries cost more to make because we're building the supply chain for them, after 100+y of "bog standard" vehicles left us with a world that each year registers new temperature records and increasingly violent weather events.
Couple that with the fact almost everyone seems to run now, and that running shoes/trainers have become acceptable fashion in all but the haughtiest of occasions.
In the 90s, running wasn't even really a thing. A few people went "jogging" for exercise. Otherwise it was a proper sport in which very few partook. Trainers were predominantly worn by children. Adults wore "real" shoes.
Something changed in the past ten years or so. I feel like Nike kept the childish association whereas brands like Hoka became acceptable for adults to wear.
What happened but not in the last 10 years (it happened before) is that 1990's children became adults and kept using trainers (personally I don't wear anything else). But this doesn't explain why Nike died this death. We will get some MBA story about in the future, I guess.
totally. some brands really made a huge step-up and became "fresh", which Nike declined and is now considered "stale". From my euro-centric perspective I see Autry, New Balance, Adidas and Asics all over the place. Even Reebok had a revival. Basketball and skateboarding shoes fell out of style and now everyone trends towards running or indoor soccer style shoes.
I agree that something changed in the past ten years or so, because in the last few years I was surprised to notice on the street that almost everyone wears running shoes (in Europe).
I have transitioned myself to wearing only some kind of good quality running shoes, perhaps a decade before this became so fashionable, because I cared much more about my comfort than about the opinions that others might have about what I am wearing.
So I was surprised when everybody else appeared to have done the same thing, eventually.
Yes, I confess I made the change when the masses started doing it and it became socially acceptable to wear running shoes to work. I think it started around ten years ago and consolidated with COVID. It's been a considerable improvement in quality of life. Now I only wear "real" shoes a few times per year, for formal occasions, and I wonder how I could spend all that time wearing them daily.
Nike famously built there business on the back of the running trend of the late 70s and early 80s. It’s headquartered where it’s headquartered because of its association with a monster collegiate running program.
Before that they were known specifically for their innovation in serious running shoes.
If anything it’s that they abandoned that which caused their current downswing.
I could care less about running shoes, or shoes in general, but late 80's and into the 90's it was like Nike vs Reebok and Adidas on the side, with a dash of Puma. Haven't heard about Reebok ever since. It was as big as Nike, so it doesn't seem unprecedented for these brands to die by stupid mistakes?
Looking around me I was convinced that most of Nike's and Adidas' sales were coming from the "fashion" side of things. People buying everyday shoes from a famous brand. The "professional" shoe was for professional athletes, football players, etc. I'd hear that a player signed with Adidas, or a runner was wearing Nike for a race, but regular people didn't go in stores for the specs, they went for the brand.
Like you say, until recently almost nobody had running shoes because running as a sport for regular people wasn't a thing. People would have some trainers that fit every sporty activity. Just because people buy more running shoes doesn't mean they buy less of the day too day shoes. Fashion and sports shoes don't replace each other. The sales of sport shoes just created a new market, they didn't cannibalize the rest of the sales. That must have been self-inflicted.
Not really. Most stuff is sealed for life. So it's more replacing whole parts when they fail than changing the oil in something. But many bearings will last hundreds of thousands of miles and never need changing for the entire life of the car. Quite amazing really.
> Engineering is about creating something that serves a purpose, while operating within a set of constraints.
A builder fits that description. Even a cook fits that description.
Engineering is something else. It's hard to describe what it is, probably why it has its own word. Dictionaries probably offer a definition.
> A good engineer will acknowledge this tradeoff between robustness and cost and behave accordingly.
An engineer will never intentionally produce something shoddy for cost reasons. They will simply refuse to do it. What you are getting at it some tasks don't require an engineer at all. You want to build a bridge to span a kilometer of water? You need an engineer. You need to occasionally cross a ditch? Anyone could lay plank across. No engineer required. The author makes this point too, with software craftsmen.
But when nobody will die from your decision (and to be clear I think security is extremely important, but moreso for banking/healthcare than a private wow server), then “shoddy” becomes a matter of reputation/taste vs value/marketability.
The demand curve is different because it’s low stakes, like throwing a bad party or oversalting food. And part of the problem in software to begin with is too much LARPing about scale/engineering for things that don’t need it, as well as lack of accountability or care for things that do.
You can still be an “engineer” working on a game, it’s just more about making the game fun than making it safe. Or, you create a process for making and test hundreds of experimental bridges, and refine/invest additional time in understanding and verifying the safety of the best one.
I'm hoping to get a mini-split system installed soon and thought I might as well look for something with HA integration. It's not easy. Some manufacturers like Samsung actually want to charge you monthly for cloud integration! Completely out of the question obviously. I came across this, and Mitsubishi is supposed to be good anyway. I would prefer something that's actually supported but I can't seem to find any other options.
I could also very easily wire my units in so no need for WiFi. Maybe I can find a wired ethernet module.
I used this guys thing https://clima.protoart.net/ after someone mentioned it in an HN comment last summer, then used claude to extend it this summer. A year in, I’m very pleased. Matter or thread would be nice, but these are super straightforward out of the box and totally local.
The manufacturer documentation [0] for everything is great and it was perfect for my goal of getting them
to show up in Savant as native thermostats [1] (likely beyond typical scope for split units).
My ideal system would be something that does matter over thread with zero external internet access. Matter over thread devices are all standardized so no proprietary app required, and the newer iphones have a thread radio built in so you can control them without even a hub.
I have my AC connected using Matter (over WiFi, not Thread) using esphome-matter, a relatively new extension to ESPHome + a small open PR [1]
Since it's running ESPHome you can easily verify everything it's doing.
Thread would be even better but this is good enough for me. 100x better than the original cloud app it came with. Still no proprietary app required, works on every platform.
Even if their rules say that I don't get why they are allowed to call the police. In this case it might have been an unregistered gun but if someone was carrying legally they can refuse service but they shouldn't be calling the police.
This is quite funny timing as just a few days ago my partner, who eats kiwis almost every day, tried eating the whole kiwi. She used to scoop it out but now says she'll never go back. It's also way more convenient as there are no tools required.
I've noticed that delivery drivers are always racing around like their lives depend on it? Why do they do that? Because they are given workloads that are impossible to complete without racing. But what if it just didn't race? Their employers would be forced to hire more drivers, or increase the cost of delivery. By racing they are just building a rod for their own backs.
I feel like it's the same with programming now. So you built something in a week that used to take two. Ok, that's expected now. Expectations are raised before you can even blink, but it's very difficult to lower them. So that's it. We've built the rod for our backs and now must shit out code quicker than we can think.
I'm sad I won't get to take pride in anything I program any more. But oh well. There are other things in life that are more important. I expect I'll become more of a plumber just joining together slop to make things happen.
It's not about language, it's about culture. If you saw someone running through a crowd with a knife you'd expect them to be thrown in prison. But someone speeding through a neighborhood? Or dangerously overtaking a cyclist? No bother.
If the person running with the knife hurt someone they'd be a murderer. But the car? Oh, it was just an accident.
You think they were doing it on purpose every time someone is in an accident, or you think every time someone says "accident", they're referring to or you're purposely missing the nuance to make a point nobody agrees with, or you think that people in general are not annoyed when someone drives recklessly?
If it's the first, I dunno - you're wrong. People aren't. If it's the second, aside from insurance fraud, nobody is trying to fuck up their day and lose a functional car in the process, maybe getting seriously injured. If it's the third, you're just being annoying and nobody will take your point seriously if you can't make it more saliently. If it's the last, go check out reddit. There are at least half a dozen subs where people post bad drivers and everyone in the comments is collectively grumbling.
Accidents. The aviation industry is the worst example you could use. Every single time, the goal is to find the issue, NOT the blame. The industry is insanely safe in large part BECAUSE they refuse to frame it as a crash, and instead frame it like an accident.
You could easily avoid every single one of these issues by driving an older bog standard, cheap car rather than one costing tens of thousands. Seems like a no brainer really?
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