top | item 30647334

(no title)

darkengine | 4 years ago

I get where you're coming from, but this website is called Hacker News. Getting around limits is a primary part of the tradition.

discuss

order

RC_ITR|4 years ago

Sure I just wish for ONCE the goal of the hacking zeitgeist on here would be “how do we get around limits to do something good for society” rather than “how do we use our cleverness to exempt ourselves from the rules that enable society?”

giantg2|4 years ago

I'll probably get downvoted, but...

Maybe we also accept that some limits can't be surpassed, at least not at an acceptable cost. In my opinion, the world cannot sustainably support so many people. So artificial limits we like to defeat, natural limits are much tougher.

vba616|4 years ago

Americans just don't understand if you say a 55 mph speed limit enables society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

   "From April to June 1982, speed was monitored on New 
   York's Interstate highways, and an 83% noncompliance rate 
   was found despite extreme penalties"
There was a legendary coast-to-coast race in the 70s, defying the national 55 mph limit:

   "Dan Gurney, winner of the 1967 24 hours of Le Mans...won 
   the second Cannonball in a Sunoco blue Ferrari 365 GTB/4 
   Daytona. Gurney said, "At no time did we exceed 175 mph"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shinin...

While the races ended due to police crackdowns, people still do the coast to coast run individually and set records:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

   "In May 2020, Arne Toman, Doug Tabbutt, and spotter 
   Dunadel Daryoush set the new cannonball record of 25 
   hours and 39 minutes during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 
   modified 2016 Audi S6 disguised to look like a Ford 
   Taurus police interceptor. Police-evasion modifications 
   included brake light kill-switches, radar detectors, 
   laser diffusers, CB-radio, and a roof-mounted thermal 
   camera. Performance modifications included a trunk- 
   mounted 67-gallon auxiliary fuel cell..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cannonball_Run

A comedy where:

   "JJ McClure, a famous racing driver and team owner 
   (Reynolds), and Victor Prinzi, his chief mechanic and 
   sometime co-driver (DeLuise), drive a Dodge Tradesman 
   ambulance fitted with a NASCAR engine (Hal Needham and 
   Brock Yates used the same vehicle in the actual 1979 
   race)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can%27t_Drive_55

   "...it took two and a half hours to drive there from 
   Albany. And I was driving from Albany, New York at 2:00 
   in the morning, burnt from all the travel. Cop stopped me 
   for doing 62 on a four lane road when there was no one 
   else in sight. Then the guy gave me a ticket. I was doing 
   62. And he said, 'We give tickets around here for over- 
   60.' and I said, 'I can't drive 55.' I grabbed a paper 
   and a pen..."
Really, (and I just learned this) it says it all that there was a punk album titled as a reaction to "I can't drive 55" called "Double Nickels on the Dime". In Soviet America, the rebels drive 55!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Nickels_on_the_Dime

kortilla|4 years ago

That is the zeitgeist. If you think hackers are only selfish then you don’t know anything about the open source world.

goodpoint|4 years ago

You might be browsing a different HN than other people. "hacker" news workships FAANGs, VC money and VC/billionaires themselves.

The original https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic is pretty incompatible with big companies & co.

naoqj|4 years ago

The change has been notable in recent years. This has always been a very libertarian forum but it's been drifting to the left at an alarming speed. Very dark times for entrepreneurship and society advances indeed.