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Tog's Paradox

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260 points adzicg | 1 comments | 22 Oct 24 12:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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nine_k ◴[22 Oct 24 14:31 UTC] No.41914693[source]▶
It looks almost as if humans have a nearly infinite backlog of things they would do if they only had time and capability, and a limit on the amount of effort they are capable of exerting per day. Then, once new tools increase their productivity and free up a bit of resources, they pick more desiderata from the backlog, and try to also accomplish that. Naturally they seek more tools for the newly-possible activities, and the loop closes.

This applies to any activity, leisure emphatically included. Travel became simpler → more vacations now involve flying a plane and thus obtaining tickets online and thus comparison-shopping, aggregating reviews of faraway places, etc → omg, vacation travel is complex again. It just allows to fulfill more of a dream.

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delichon ◴[22 Oct 24 14:39 UTC] No.41914766[source]▶
The nearly infinite backlog also means that there is nearly infinite demand for labor and Luddite adjacent arguments that labor saving technology causes persistent underemployment are invalid.
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Epa095 ◴[22 Oct 24 14:54 UTC] No.41914903[source]▶
Friendly reminder that things ended up quite shit for the actuall ludites, and the advantages only 'trickled down' after a generation or two. So I will keep being worried for everyone who works now, and their kids.
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1. bluGill ◴[23 Oct 24 02:24 UTC] No.41921138[source]▶
The ludlites needed to learn new jobs. I know many old people who are unwilling to try anything new. I try to not be one, but sometimes I've already seen that in some different form - I'm not sure if I'm right to be cynical about new things or not.