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Comment by zabriel_goss | Hacker News Reader

Interested to see the conversation here on HN. Tech independence and the idea of owning the systems and machines we operate are topics that frequently surface among enthusiasts. Yet, independence may not be the best way to describe it. Does autonomy fit the bill, satisfying a sense of self-direction while also reaping the benefits of our interdependence at large?

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I think that's closer. There is no full independence, it cannot exist in civilization. But the degree of control and autonomy varies, and arguably is the important stuff.

And I feel this is actually aligned with the "invisible" independence vs. "visible" one, because asking someone for help is invoking social mechanisms, with all their complexity and messiness, and basically giving up autonomy on the task.

I believe every individual and organization should understand the tradeoffs between the two and have a backup plan. The backup is typically unnecessary assuming stable times but when incentives change, everyone should be vigilant for rug pulls. As an individual, I can calmly build a self-hosted inference stack based on EOL crypto mining accelerators but when building for clients, support and replacements becomes more important than budget and novelty.

There's a very poor political movement that I have a strong distaste for (libertarianism) which preaches pure autonomy, but almost always fails because we need to put our resources together to build infrastructure.

We don't live in a utopia where we can behave with impunity - humans need to regulate, cooperate, and manage resources

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