79F and 96%RH this morning. It got hot yesterday but not as hot as some recent days. Wore my cool vest and set up my portable air conditioner and got some work done for a couple of hours.
As a result, I’ve got another pickup load for the auction, and more coming.
I’ve got the beginning of an idea rolling around in my empty gourd of a head. Not sure if it is going to lead anywhere, but it ties together “smart” thermostats, Boeings Max disaster, high efficiency clothes washers, and a couple of other things. What they all have in common is trying to use software and cleverness to solve a problem better addressed with the application of ‘stuff’.
With thermostats, you are better off spending a couple hundred bucks on air sealing and insulation to increase the performance of your home than getting clever with your HVAC. With the Max, it looks like Boeing tried to solve a physical issue (instability in flight) with cleverness, and with HE clothes washing, we all know you get a better result with old style washers that simply used more water, more agitation, more soap, etc. Once again, trying to replace stuff with cleverness.
Even in cars you find the same thing, only applied to the stuff instead of just a direct software approach (although the direct approach is present too). The steel has been made stronger, rather than using more. More strength comes from SHAPE than material, which is cleverness embodied physically.
None of it is necessarily bad in and of itself, but it adds cost, complexity, and most unforgivably, trades TIME for stuff. And as living creatures with a finite amount of time on the planet, stealing TIME while conserving stuff seems a pretty bad bargain to me.
Anyway, as I said, the ideas aren’t fully formed, but that’s where my head is at this morning.
nick