Hate that I'm biting on this, but this isn't constructive, whereas AI generated or not, the comment above is. It is the top one, it is succinct, and it articulates the point clearly.
You seem to lament AI and given the context of that comment, the author presumably does too. The world is moving faster and faster towards AI first so kicking an screaming "That's AI" will not help. AI generated noise sucks, nut this is not it. We're moving closer and closer to a self-censored, milquetoast internet. Don't bring down a person for putting themselves out there, instead build on their case or build one of your own if you disagree. Shitting on well articulated points only pushes them further out of common discourse. We are all strangers on the internet and owe each other nothing, including this feedback, so do with it what you will.
Who is selling these with enterprise trappings? What you're describing evaporated 2+ months ago. Everything is metered for enterprise users now. If there happens to be a stray vendor offering this I'd wager 2 things. 1) it's about to be phased out. 2) model limits will be in place so even that $200 plan won't go very far.
I agree century timescales are tough, I'm not convinced 4 of 5 of your listed things have been solved.
Rubber has been replaced with oil.
Fertilizer has been replaced with Natural Gas that comes from the same place as oil.
Coal usage has been replaced/displaced primarily by natural gas, see above.
Wood, or deforestation, was a real problem in the 1920's, but many uses were replaced by plastics (oil) and natural gas. Sustainable forestry helped a ton here too once it hit the paper industry's bottom line.
Oil is certainly not solved, so we solved 4 out of 5 with the 5th.
The Goal was written 40 years ago and talks about, among other things, the paradox/illusion of local optima. This isn't new, AI coding assistants are at some level just another NCX-10. This isn't a book recommendation thread, but I highly recommend that book to anyone, even if you've read its IT equivalent, The Phoenix Project.
Off topic but of all the Mooney images ever made, why a scary clown?
That aside, working with complex systems and constraints there often isn't an aha moment, there's just a decision to be made. As someone who loves that aha moment, I can get stuck trying to figure out perfect from good enough. Interesting to see there is indeed a positive emotion correlated with that aha moment that keeps people searching for solutions.
I wonder if there's a correlation between addiction and this aha moment. Like you get drunk and suddenly "aha!" those big unresolvable problems don't matter. The next morning they matter again until, aha, beer:30 hits.
Given it's 2025 and companies saddled with tech debt continue to prioritize speed of delivery over quality, I doubt the craftperson will win.
If anything we'll see disposable systems (or parts) and the job of an SE will become even more like a plumber, connecting prebuilt business logic to prebuilt systems libraries. When one of those fails, have AI whip up a brand new one instead of troubleshooting the existing one(s). After all, for business leader it's the output that matters, not the code.
For 20+ years business leaders have been eager to shed the high overhead of developers via any means necessary while ignoring their most expensive employees' input. Anyone remember Dilbert? It was funny as a kid, and is now tragic in its timeless accuracy a generation later.
I'd wager in bad economic times if someone can afford a new car, they would buy something more subdued as to not stand out. In good economic times they wouldn't feel that same social pressure?
Kind of like choosing an outfit for a funeral vs a birthday party.
This is novel to me. The last line is critical though, this only works if you are out-investing a maxed out 401k. Meaning, after investing over $20k, if you are investing an additional $100k, you are better off taking risks in that 401k because a moonshot there would be well protected and a loss there would be minor relative to other investments you presumably have.
Thanks for sharing, but for most this is, as you said, terrible investment advice.
Timelines matter here. Nation states separated by centuries are different than a child on the tube. At a certain threshold things become human history and we should be able to rise above "Finders keepers"/"No it's Mine" arguments over artifacts and instead find the best stewards.
I would have agreed with you back when I only watched concerts that cost $20 bucks and the seats were General admission. But lately most acts I see are $100+ and you're assigned a seat and eventually everyone stands. Examples include Foo Fighters, TSO, Dream Theater, Book of Mormon (no standing), and Doobie Brothers. All were at different venues and all were enforced assigned seats with no energy allowed. I'm not sure VR is there yet, but I bet in less than a decades time there will be economical virtual options that achieve parity of experience for some people.
I'm not claiming it's the same for everyone. I'm not claiming concerts are going to go away. I do however see a valid business opportunity in creating a new class of seat.
Remote workers could go together, long distance relationships could make it a date. Rural Polish fans of Japanese metal could see a more immersive set than just a YouTube video.
The issue I see is that FB doesn't have a moat for this type of experience. Anything in the metaverse can be replicated by MS (discord + Xbox), Sony (hardware experience + Playstation), or maybe a partnership between Valve, ticketmaster, and Twitter.
In short, virtual concerts, probably. FB being saved by them, probably not. But hey, I've been wrong about Facebook since their IPO.
Under duress you'd be surprised what you'd publicly support.
It's not as if every Russian has the luxury to say what they want and not fear extreme retaliation.
Instead of "Russians", think instead "diverse group of humans living under a violent, jealous, unpredictable regime."
Just like victims of domestic abuse struggle to escape their abuser, it's not as easy to say "fuck off" or actually leave as keyboard pundits would have us believe.
If you want some history about making lists, check out the McCarthy Trials.
Does OP directly say that? Comments like this show exactly the kind of racism white males are coming up against. They're assumed to have privilege and access to ivy league networks.
You directly say with no info except that the OPs friend is white that he probably coasted by most of his life. Seems like you're the one slinging racist stereotypes.
OP was sharing an anecdote of his friend's experience of an unlevel playing field. Your response is to undermine that concern based on race! Ironic, no?
It matters in principle, but probably not in practice.
If it comes down to choosing who next to make rich off search, why reward those who've already benefited creating the modern status quo?
And if these people were passionate about end user privacy and rights, their positions within Alphabet we're much better poised to make a difference than spinning up a new search engine.
Maybe their experience makes them perfect to compete and their intentions are good. Search is too ripe with opportunity and too difficult to keep useful that a regression towards profit at all costs is mandatory.
If tracking and targeted ads are a given, just give me the ability to blacklist seo spam, unwanted ads, and other low quality content. That's the killer app. Track away, just give me some control.
Lots of questionable people behind that. Head of monetization at YouTube? Head of ads at Google? Keep scrolling and their investors aren't much better. Why won't they pivot to selling info as soon as they have market share?
If you're concerned about ads and privacy, your info and eyes are probably worth more than an average click elsewhere.
You seem to lament AI and given the context of that comment, the author presumably does too. The world is moving faster and faster towards AI first so kicking an screaming "That's AI" will not help. AI generated noise sucks, nut this is not it. We're moving closer and closer to a self-censored, milquetoast internet. Don't bring down a person for putting themselves out there, instead build on their case or build one of your own if you disagree. Shitting on well articulated points only pushes them further out of common discourse. We are all strangers on the internet and owe each other nothing, including this feedback, so do with it what you will.