5 ms·

> Turned out: not much have changed. I think the world has changed a lot since the 1980s.

by gwern 16d ago

rbanffy 16d ago
Most people still go to work every day, inequality still exists, as does famine, disease, wars… Our cars are cleaner, our phones are much better, our TVs much lighter and bigger.
- cheema33 16d ago
  > Most people still go to work every day.. And trees and mountains and animals still exist... Rate of change, it appears, depends entirely on someone's perspective.
- bawolff 16d ago
  > Most people still go to work every day, Ironically, that is one of the things that have changed. In 1980 working from home was borderline unthinkable. Now, while it is far from universal its also not that unusual.
  - 1718627440 16d ago
    Society wise yes, but if you had an office job, you essentially take inbound mail and transfrom it into outbound mail. That has been possible to do from home in the 80s. If you work in a large corporation, you also don't talk to people directly, you call them. That's possible from home too. Until the industrial revolution, every work was home work.
    - rbanffy 15d ago
      Everyone working in an office (maintenance excepcted) could work from home right now. The fact so few of us do, and that so many companies (read "people who are invested in urban office space") force employees to work from offices.
      - 1718627440 15d ago
        I honestly still see some benefit from working together, quick meetings over lunch and the psychological effects of leaving work. Needing to physically leave your workplace helps your brain leave work at work.
        rbanffy 15d ago
        The downsides of it are well known, however. Higher costs of living near work, less mobility (both home and work need to be mostly in the same place, so you end up missing opportunities), unmet demands for housing (resources invested in office space), more time spent commuting in public transport (or worse, cars), and so on. Even for employers, the cost is limiting where you can hire talent. I live in Ireland and, while a lot of talent is concentrated in the Dublin area, there are other talent pools that are simply out of reach to us. I too love to meet my colleagues in person, but the cost for society, and for myself, are non-trivial. I would love if we had a weekly office day, so we could have meetings, lunch, discuss work, projects, intersections on what we are doing, and so on.
- toyg 16d ago
  Life in Asia and Africa has changed pretty dramatically, and improvements are accelerating. Yeah, we're not in utopia yet, but more people than ever live comfortable, safe lives. "Business at the speed of light" has become a reality, and we're still getting to grips with it. We dealt with a global pandemic with an efficiency never seen before - had it happened in the previous century, we would have probably seen "black death" levels of casualties. Issues like inequality and conflict are mostly rooted in the human psyche more than the human condition, so they will continue to be there probably forever; but we're getting better.
  - alexashka 16d ago
    The fertility rate in China is 1. The fertility rate where I live is 1.21. 1 in 5 adult women where I live are on prescription anti-depressant medication. For comparison - the fertility rate under Stalin - the uber evil bad guy as we all know was between 3 and 4.5.
    - bbmatryoshka 16d ago
      fertility is NOT a measure of happiness
      - alexashka 16d ago
        Name one species that is happy whilst rapidly going extinct.
        DrScientist 15d ago
        A species isn't a thing that can be happy or not. Also the idea of a replacement rate of 1 equals rapidly going extinct is mathematically illiterate. Exponentials work both ways - in growth and decay - ie let's say the population halves every generation ~ 25 years - it would take nearly 1000 years to reach near zero - as half of half is a smaller absolute reduction each time.
        15d ago

> Turned out: not much have changed. I think the world has changed a lot since the 1980s.

by gwern 16d ago

> Turned out: not much have changed. I think the world has changed a lot since the 1980s.

Most people still go to work every day, inequality still exists, as does famine, disease, wars… Our cars are cleaner, our phones are much better, our TVs much lighter and bigger.

cheema33 16d ago
> Most people still go to work every day.. And trees and mountains and animals still exist... Rate of change, it appears, depends entirely on someone's perspective.
bawolff 16d ago
> Most people still go to work every day, Ironically, that is one of the things that have changed. In 1980 working from home was borderline unthinkable. Now, while it is far from universal its also not that unusual.
- 1718627440 16d ago
  Society wise yes, but if you had an office job, you essentially take inbound mail and transfrom it into outbound mail. That has been possible to do from home in the 80s. If you work in a large corporation, you also don't talk to people directly, you call them. That's possible from home too. Until the industrial revolution, every work was home work.
  - rbanffy 15d ago
    Everyone working in an office (maintenance excepcted) could work from home right now. The fact so few of us do, and that so many companies (read "people who are invested in urban office space") force employees to work from offices.
    - 1718627440 15d ago
      I honestly still see some benefit from working together, quick meetings over lunch and the psychological effects of leaving work. Needing to physically leave your workplace helps your brain leave work at work.
      - rbanffy 15d ago
        The downsides of it are well known, however. Higher costs of living near work, less mobility (both home and work need to be mostly in the same place, so you end up missing opportunities), unmet demands for housing (resources invested in office space), more time spent commuting in public transport (or worse, cars), and so on. Even for employers, the cost is limiting where you can hire talent. I live in Ireland and, while a lot of talent is concentrated in the Dublin area, there are other talent pools that are simply out of reach to us. I too love to meet my colleagues in person, but the cost for society, and for myself, are non-trivial. I would love if we had a weekly office day, so we could have meetings, lunch, discuss work, projects, intersections on what we are doing, and so on.
toyg 16d ago
Life in Asia and Africa has changed pretty dramatically, and improvements are accelerating. Yeah, we're not in utopia yet, but more people than ever live comfortable, safe lives. "Business at the speed of light" has become a reality, and we're still getting to grips with it. We dealt with a global pandemic with an efficiency never seen before - had it happened in the previous century, we would have probably seen "black death" levels of casualties. Issues like inequality and conflict are mostly rooted in the human psyche more than the human condition, so they will continue to be there probably forever; but we're getting better.
- alexashka 16d ago
  The fertility rate in China is 1. The fertility rate where I live is 1.21. 1 in 5 adult women where I live are on prescription anti-depressant medication. For comparison - the fertility rate under Stalin - the uber evil bad guy as we all know was between 3 and 4.5.
  - bbmatryoshka 16d ago
    fertility is NOT a measure of happiness
    - alexashka 16d ago
      Name one species that is happy whilst rapidly going extinct.
      - DrScientist 15d ago
        A species isn't a thing that can be happy or not. Also the idea of a replacement rate of 1 equals rapidly going extinct is mathematically illiterate. Exponentials work both ways - in growth and decay - ie let's say the population halves every generation ~ 25 years - it would take nearly 1000 years to reach near zero - as half of half is a smaller absolute reduction each time.
        15d ago