[kang]

> Scale isn’t bad, at least not necessarily. Industrial is perfectly capable of being better than custom. Sometimes the YouTube video is more helpful than the private tutor.

This is not true; consider the argument that there is always a loss of quality in scaling. Industrial maybe better than average custom, but is always worse than best customs. Broadcast lecture is almost always worse than a tutor whose discourse is customised to student's current knowledge. (The word guru (literally, one who leads towards light) is wrongly translated to teacher, for which the word in sanskrit is shikshak.)

[durumu]

I agree the average tutor is better than the average lecturer. But if I watch a YouTube lecture, then I might have access to the best lecturer in the world, or at least a 99%ile lecturer, e.g 3blue1brown. This only works because of the scale -- it wouldn't be possible for millions to get access to tutors this good 1 on 1.

[hprotagonist]

but can you argue with them for an indeterminate period of time in earnest dialogue until the idea goes CLICK inside your head? You cannot, and so the value is much lessened because that critical access isn’t present.

[api]

I don’t think that holds for everything. Industrial 3nm chips are probably better than whatever you would get if people tried to DIY this. Lots of things get better with scale: materials, precision machinery, process efficiency, power generation.

But there’s also plenty of things that don’t work this way. Care is one of the most extreme things that does not.

[karrieberrie553]

I think the argument is that someone with the knowledge to make 3nm chips could probably know how to make some very cool yet very expensive chips, but since they target a lot of people they probably make choices that would satisfy more people but maybe not as well

[kang]

for eg, asic custom designed for an application is better than a generalised industrial chip