HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Lobbyists probably also tend to hire ex-politicians as a form of (perfectly legal) delayed bribery; and hire family members of politicians (https://youtu.be/jXf04bhcjbg?t=1493).

> means you don't respect your users.

I was just pontif- er, talking about this to someone, a couple of days ago.

I love the users of my products. Most of my products are free, and are carefully-crafted, highly-polished, complete deliverables, and I fret over how they are used -even if by a tiny number of end users-, like a nervous hen. I do what I do, out of love for the craft, and out of a genuine desire to make people's lives easier, through the technology I have at my disposal.

It is my belief that most tech companies despise their user base. Users are little more than cattle, to be fattened and slaughtered. "Caring about the user" means optimizing for "engagement," or keeping them trapped within their own ecosystem. John Oliver did a rant about this, recently[0]. It has nothing to do with actually caring about the user, or solving their problem. It is about harvesting users.

In fact, my discussion about this, came about, because someone wanted to keep users inside the app I'm writing, as opposed to linking them to a more familiar app, on their phone (for the record, it was for videoconferencing). Linking is a "no-brainer," as I can link out to dozens of installed apps, using the simple URL scheme method, built into iOS[1], and "keeping them in the app," would have required several months of extra work, polluting the app with megabytes of junk code, because I'd need to use SDKs, and also kill the ability to easily scale to add new clients (contrary to popular belief, Zoom is not the only videoconferencing option). It would also have possibly put us on the hook, legally, for what happened in those videoconferences.

[0] https://youtu.be/jXf04bhcjbg?t=638

[1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-c...

John Oliver also covered tech monopolies recently.

Tech Monopolies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXf04bhcjbg

⬐ dado3212

I think he's mostly right here in identifying the problem. I'd agree with the linked comments on this post that the solution (and AICOA as discussed by the link for the post) is likely bad/inadequate.

⬐ leotravis10

Here's Mike Masnick's response over on Techdirt on that. A big swing and a miss which is rare on Oliver's part: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/06/14/john-olivers-big-whiff-j...

⬐ smolder

Another commenter had an interesting comment about techdirts opinion here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31771955

Even ignoring that, there is a lot of sponsorship by big tech cos for people who push the idea they aren't too big. This seems to me to be an indicator in itself that they are too big. Over-consolidation of business is damaging to capitalism (which depends on competition to work) and to democracy, has been going on a long time, and the damage is accumulating. I think this is obvious and I thought LWT did a decent job tackling the issue, as someone who doesn't go to them first for info nor always agree with their take.

⬐ doitLP

I disagree. He has covered three big topics in his jokey rants which I happened to know intimately and he’s gotten them horribly wrong all three times. Like embarrassingly wrong. To pretend all the rest are hard-hitting and well-researched would be some hardcore Gell-Mann amnesia.

⬐ oefrha

Same. Used to enjoy it until it touched some topics I’m very familiar with — gosh they are as bad as any other one-sided crap out there, only more entertaining and hence more persuasive to outsiders. Like, all important facts counter to their narrative are withheld, it was painful to watch. I decided it’s just a comedy show after all, and gradually stopped watching. I’d rather shape my world view with a range of not-so-effective propagandists than a single very effective propagandist.

⬐ sylware

And he does not even talk about the software required to browse the "Big Tech Web": only google = blink (~wekbit) and geeko (just a google financed kult to avoid anti-trust), and apple = webkit, with their respective c++ compilers (gcc and clang).

There is only one way out: noscript/basic (x)html browsers which does not require the army of devs from google or apple. Regulate aggressively (or it won't happen) to make at least critical web sites work with them (administration online services, utility online services, shopping, banks). You can do wonders with basic HTML forms.

video streaming services would just need to support the <video> element with a URL where seeking is standardized (I think apple HLS did just that).

⬐ xparadigm

He did not talk about quite a few issues like this. I think that’s because the video is targeted for a less technical audience. But this video did make me think about the innovation the world is deprived of because of this monopoly. What wonders we miss because of this.

Could it be a coincidence that this occurred after John Oliver's report [1] on tech?

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXf04bhcjbg

⬐ pc86

Not only could it be, it definitely is.

⬐ None

None

⬐ nus07

It ties back to this piece about monopolies in US that has stuck with me from last year (long detailed read) -

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/lina-khans-bat...

⬐ throwaway_1928

"Both of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s daughters work for the tech giants: Alison Schumer works as a privacy and politics product marketing manager at Facebook parent company Meta, while Jessica Schumer is a registered lobbyist for Amazon in New York state. The fate of the Senate’s antitrust bills targeting the tech industry comes down to Schumer, who will ultimately decide whether or not to bring them to the floor."

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tech/2022/02/22...

⬐ j_schmuck

I mean this is just the natural order of industry and governance, they will be closely linked to the point of obvious corruption and oligarchy. Oligarchy is the natural form of government.

I still don't really understand how Oliver feels outrage at the normal functioning of the only government he is willing to live in, where his political views are the norm, and them being dissatisfied has made him wealthy and influential in a way he never could have been as a humor-focused comedian.