[HN Gopher] Anti-Schelling points and waiting for my barista-mad...
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       Anti-Schelling points and waiting for my barista-made coffee
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2025-03-07 10:38 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (interconnected.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (interconnected.org)
        
       | khelavastr wrote:
       | Voronoi centers!
        
       | zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
       | Just sell black coffee and let the customer add in other stuff if
       | they want it
        
         | harrison_clarke wrote:
         | this is the other solution: it doesn't really matter if the
         | queue is a bit out of order, if they all get the same thing
         | with little delay
        
         | astrange wrote:
         | The milk preparation is where the barista's skill comes in.
         | 
         | It's much harder to make black coffee so well you'd want a
         | professional for it. I think Glitch Coffee in Tokyo is the only
         | place I've ever been that I've felt is worth it.
         | 
         | (Anti-bonus points to Philz in SV, which has the aesthetic of a
         | specialty coffee place but actually sells Starbucks-style
         | "totally burnt coffee with tons of cream added" products except
         | worse.)
        
         | bongodongobob wrote:
         | People don't go to those places for a plain black coffee.
        
       | zomglings wrote:
       | I'm not sure everyone in a country "knowing" to drive on the same
       | side of the road is an example of a Schelling point -- drivers
       | are trained to do this.
       | 
       | Also not sure if fads, like "everyone orders a flat white", are
       | instances of Schelling points, but that seems more reasonable as
       | a Schelling point than driving on the same side of the road.
       | 
       | More generally, didn't really understand the point of this
       | article. I guess the author is trying to say that as technology
       | improves, people are gaining the ability to customize their
       | experiences. Framing this as "anti-Schelling points" doesn't make
       | sense to me - what shared game is being played? At its most game-
       | like, you could say that people are just trying to maximize their
       | own utility without worrying (or having to worry) about shared
       | economy of scale.
        
         | harrison_clarke wrote:
         | in the case of drink orders, there's a slight benefit to
         | ordering something unique (at least unique within the queue
         | you're standing in). you don't have to remember your place in
         | line, or negotiate with someone else about who was there first
         | 
         | the space of possible drink orders isn't so large that you'll
         | be collision-free by default (like UUIDs), so there's some
         | incentive to guess what other people will order, and adjust
         | your order to avoid collisions
        
           | brookst wrote:
           | "I have a flat white for Steve" is comedy gold at a crowded
           | starbucks.
        
           | thaumasiotes wrote:
           | > in the case of drink orders, there's a slight benefit to
           | ordering something unique (at least unique within the queue
           | you're standing in). you don't have to remember your place in
           | line, or negotiate with someone else about who was there
           | first
           | 
           | A normally-functioning vendor would call out the completed
           | order by order number, so this problem just can't arise. You
           | can't take someone else's order identical to yours any more
           | than you can take someone else's order for ten times as much
           | food as you purchased.
        
         | tedunangst wrote:
         | The point is you can talk about game theory if you make
         | everything about game theory.
        
         | ano-ther wrote:
         | > I'm not sure everyone in a country "knowing" to drive on the
         | same side of the road is an example of a Schelling point --
         | drivers are trained to do this.
         | 
         | The driving side is usually also the walking side. When I
         | travel to a country with another orientation, I bump into
         | people on the sidewalk or corridors a few times before
         | adjusting. Same on the way back, all without driving a car
         | myself.
        
       | dave4420 wrote:
       | What's with all the flags hovering round the page? Very
       | distracting, worse than most adverts.
        
         | jw_cook wrote:
         | Other readers' cursors. You can turn that off with the 'quiet
         | mode' toggle in the upper right.
        
       | more_corn wrote:
       | Wtf is that background
        
       | pinerd3 wrote:
       | Strongly disagree with this:
       | 
       | > I think the variety in barista coffee is different from the
       | variety in, say, fashion or wine because with fashion and wine
       | there is social signalling and all kinds of things going on
       | 
       | Sounds like OP just doesn't care about coffee thst much. Fine for
       | them, but any subject has a subculture; there are definitely
       | social signaling games within the coffee world
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-09 22:00 UTC)