Comment by supportengineer

Comment by supportengineer 6 hours ago

A lot of classic software essentially worked more like a database. In the last 10-15 years it's all moving to an algorithm.

Here is what I mean. Photos apps used to let you search through your photos using filters.

The same kinds of things are happening on the web which already happened to apps (desktop and mobile).

In the modern world, some marketing company wants to tell YOU which of YOUR photos you wanted, so they can sell you some prints, harvest your data, or something.

I would like any apps that have to do with collections of files, photos, music, etc to be more of a deterministic DATABASE and less of a nondeterministic algorithm.

wolpoli 6 hours ago

> A lot of classic software essentially worked more like a database. In the last 10-15 years it's all moving to an algorithm.

You just described what I missed about the older software. Older software gives users control over sorting and show data in a tabular format. Modern software sorts data with an algorithm, with ads mixed in, and shows data in a card format, making it a lot less usable.

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TeMPOraL 3 hours ago

Exactly. My related observation: half of the SaaS products I see would be more useful and ergonomic for the user if they were implemented as an Excel sheet.
(I actually worked for one of such "better off as an .xls file" startup in the past, and its main competitor was an incumbent that sold the same stuff as an Excel extension. Trying to replace that with a React app is not a worthwhile use of life.)
Algorithms are fine. I'll happily apply the most advanced ones I can get. The problem is with who applies them to what - as you and GP said, it's about user control - or, currently, lack of.

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- llm_trw 2 hours ago
  
  Excel is great until it you need to do something that takes up more space than a single screen. Then it isn't.
  Sending sqlite databases to the users which they can interact with using both sql and a viewer is where it's at.
  
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brookst 2 hours ago

> Older software gives users control over sorting and show data in a tabular format
I'm old and tend to agree, but I suspect this is similar to "you used to have a knob on the TV that showed the channel it's on".

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grugagag 3 hours ago

Deterministic software puts the user in control of the product. Nondeterministic algos put the products in control of the user. Naturally companies want the latter and under guises of the ‘now better’ give the user worse and charge them more. A new generation isn’t even aware they’re being fleeced because they don’t have anything to compare with. And the frog boils slowly…

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