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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

It's exactly this ethos, the "move fast and break things", and oh, we don't give a fuck about who/what we damage in the process - careless people indeed.

I am someone who came of age during an incredibly hopeful time about how technology could be a force for good. The silicon valley ethos at present is totally morally bankrupt and rotten to the core.

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Move fast and break things is an ethos borne out of the assumption that fixing things is relatively cheap. Hence it made sense in software where experimentation is dirt cheap. But even then, the idea is quite a stretch: ask anyone who worked in a startup who had to sell to even just SMEs, not to mention big conglomerates. The idea hits a hard wall and starts to crack when the business hits a customer who can't fix things for cheap. Even Zuck, father and posterboy of the idea, had to eventually pivot messaging to "Move fast with stable infra".

And the more "software eats the world", the less this paradigm is gonna be a feasible market strategy. I've harbored these thoughts from way back and hence I was (and continue to be) skeptical of unregulated start-ups/new tech ideas who interface with the real world: Hyperloop, Tesla self-driving, and Theranos come to mind. An interesting case study in my view is _Github_ who in theory, having software engineers for customers, should be pretty well-insulated from the expensive repair costs of the real world. And yet we'd all agree they need a GINORMOUS dose of that sweet sweet "stable infra".

Same. Growing up Gen X, I always thought robots being used for evil would be cool dystopian dictatorships that would try to grind me under its boot but I would resist. Instead it’s just twerps who are so terminally online they can’t fathom other people seem to have feelings.

Now I’m getting even angrier imagining the email that went around internally on how to spin this and why it was a short term loss but will be for the long term good. Of trying to kill off the idea of cleaning people and then jacking up rates.

the banality of evil is a recurring theme in human history.

Yes, but I was kinda hoping Hannah Arendt’s lessons had been internalized and we would progress. More the fool I.

One thing that I've been noticing more and more, is that it looks like every dystopic work of art, be it 1984, brave new world or idiocracy, ends up being used as an instruction manual.

So far we were implementing only the first two ones, with AI, it looks like we decided to accelerate Idiocracy implementation too.

Same. The one that cemented it for me is The Matrix is only a quarter-century old, yet some people watched it and thought, "Oooh, good idea!" You can't even complain the context was gone.

Torment Nexus springs to mind

Oooh, just what I need for my spam and troll trap!

I'd planned on feeding the spam to the trolls but it seemed a like unethical and prone to obesity. Plus cross breeding could be a problem.

Can I install it in an AirBnB or do they come pre-fitted?

> I always thought robots being used for evil would be cool dystopian dictatorships that would try to grind me under its boot but I would resist. Instead it’s just

It's... both.

Moving fast and breaking things is fine, as long as you fix them and make things right.

If you break a production server you don't just leave it broken...

I'm assuming these companies have VC cash, so not just paying for repairs and risking negative publicity seems extremely foolish.

No it's not. I hate normalising that approach.

Do things right is where we should be heading.

A good doc on this subject: https://machines.cargo.site/

Cups and plates in the wrong places, the horror!! This generation is cooked. /s

I wonder why that was on the same level of complaints about broken things.

No, this isn't a generational thing, if you don't see the problem with trashing someone's house (let alone doing so to the tune of $12k) that is a comment on your values alone.

But why don't they take the same money and get a cheap industrial unit and build some mock rooms up. Surely it costs the same as hiring and subsequently fixing peoples houses.

If I'm supposed to buy a robot to clean my house, I personally don't want to have to go looking for where the stupid thing has put my cups and plates or whatever whenever it straightens up. I expect there to be a place for all the things and all the things to be put back in place. That's not "er mah gerd the world is ending because millennials am I right!"; that's "your idiot robot can't do the one job I bought it for".

> refrigerator shelf was cracked ... broken glass or dish ... wooden nightstand drawer was chipped

It sounds like they cost a couple hundred dollars in damages I’m not sure it damns a whole generation

Well let's get right on that then. If you'd kindly share your address and those of your favorite friends and family, we'll go distribute a couple hundred in damages to each of them.

Where was "a generation" mentioned? The "silicon valley ethos" is not a generational thing.

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