We're at a point where, as Marc Andreesen puts it, "Software is eating the world." As someone who has been creating and debugging software for more than 50 years, I've met a lot of programmers. I would estimate that 75-80% of them should be in another profession. To be really good requires a certain mindset, close to the stereotype portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man." Considering the use of software in things like keeping a plane in the air, or monitoring someone's life, incompetence can be deadly. If your plumber or barber makes a mistake, the result can be annoying but not likely fatal. Both of those professions require a license, attained by proving competence. Programming has no such requirement. The bar is low, the pay is high, and the results reflect that. In many shops there is one reasonably good programmer who is carrying the rest of the staff. Typically the software staff is located in large cubical "farms", with lots of noise and endless distractions, managed by people who assume that productivity can be measured by the number of lines of instructions written per day. Turnover is high among those best qualified, and learning a new code base in a new position can take weeks to months. Now you know why "Patch Tuesday" exists and new fixes arrive every week.
It is tragic that the High Court of Justice is interfering and creating dissension among a unified Israel to suit the ends of its constituency whose pre 10/6 views on a two state solution and interference with Jewish law and national security and unity hace no relationship to the 10/7 facts on the ground in Israel.
I would think the actions of the Israeli Supreme Court, boiled down, amount to a coup (insurrection, dare I say?) - particularly as they’ve “made their move” in a time of war!
They have effectively removed the representative voice of the people from any say in the operation of their government or duly elected representatives.
Perhaps an effort should be mounted to disbar or impeach them on just such charges and be most aggressively pursued.
If elected we will 'proactively decrease the number of competents' at the helm of America's major institutions. Could make a good Democratic party-political slogan?
There is no causal relation between the Alaskan Airlines door plug failure and any pilot or air traffic controller hiring policy. The Big Story is a false narrative making a spurious correlation between DEI and the door plug blow out. I don't approve of the DEI ideology, but I also disapprove of disingenuous arguments to make political points.
You're correct that DEI has nothing to do with the door plug failure, as I hope I made clear. However, the door plug failure has led to heated online debate over airline safety over roughly the past two weeks, which goes beyond Boeing's quality control, engineering, and outsourcing issues to encompass the pilot training program of at least one major domestic airline and the apparent crisis afflicting American air traffic controllers, which was widely reported on last year.
My read of the current state of the debate is that you have the right blaming the issue exclusively on DEI, and some on the left and in the center saying that DEI in the aviation industry is a non-issue due to automation and technological improvements obviating the need for competent personnel, and that such airlines safety issues that do exist are the fault of Boeing's outsourcing and cost-cutting. I think both issues—engineering/production/corporate culture problems and DEI-related personnel policies—are happening at the same time, and that the "crisis," such as it is, is due to an interaction of the two.
I concur. Just look at the ever accelerating electrical and technological instrumentation in cars for example.
If something goes wrong with your car now, it is so inextricably linked to so many other things, it practically takes a degree from MIT to sort it all out (which I dare say few mechanics possess in your average garage), and costs you a fortune to fix!
Even then, they give it back to you with their fingers crossed.
We’ve created so many monsters of adverse consequences in our rush to seem so advanced.
Thank you for your reply. I take your point about the debate you mention, although the article you cite seems to discount the bad effects of DEI in pilot and air traffic controller training in the face of market forces. My point is that you seemed to be using the door plug incident to illustrate the adverse effects of DEI.
I’m so glad you have a comment section where I can thank you for bringing us news every day !!!!
We're at a point where, as Marc Andreesen puts it, "Software is eating the world." As someone who has been creating and debugging software for more than 50 years, I've met a lot of programmers. I would estimate that 75-80% of them should be in another profession. To be really good requires a certain mindset, close to the stereotype portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man." Considering the use of software in things like keeping a plane in the air, or monitoring someone's life, incompetence can be deadly. If your plumber or barber makes a mistake, the result can be annoying but not likely fatal. Both of those professions require a license, attained by proving competence. Programming has no such requirement. The bar is low, the pay is high, and the results reflect that. In many shops there is one reasonably good programmer who is carrying the rest of the staff. Typically the software staff is located in large cubical "farms", with lots of noise and endless distractions, managed by people who assume that productivity can be measured by the number of lines of instructions written per day. Turnover is high among those best qualified, and learning a new code base in a new position can take weeks to months. Now you know why "Patch Tuesday" exists and new fixes arrive every week.
It is tragic that the High Court of Justice is interfering and creating dissension among a unified Israel to suit the ends of its constituency whose pre 10/6 views on a two state solution and interference with Jewish law and national security and unity hace no relationship to the 10/7 facts on the ground in Israel.
I would think the actions of the Israeli Supreme Court, boiled down, amount to a coup (insurrection, dare I say?) - particularly as they’ve “made their move” in a time of war!
They have effectively removed the representative voice of the people from any say in the operation of their government or duly elected representatives.
Perhaps an effort should be mounted to disbar or impeach them on just such charges and be most aggressively pursued.
If elected we will 'proactively decrease the number of competents' at the helm of America's major institutions. Could make a good Democratic party-political slogan?
Tremendous work, as usual. Cheers!
lol TakiMag is a white supremacist magazine. Richard Spencer used to write there. of course they’re against black people getting jobs.
There is no causal relation between the Alaskan Airlines door plug failure and any pilot or air traffic controller hiring policy. The Big Story is a false narrative making a spurious correlation between DEI and the door plug blow out. I don't approve of the DEI ideology, but I also disapprove of disingenuous arguments to make political points.
You're correct that DEI has nothing to do with the door plug failure, as I hope I made clear. However, the door plug failure has led to heated online debate over airline safety over roughly the past two weeks, which goes beyond Boeing's quality control, engineering, and outsourcing issues to encompass the pilot training program of at least one major domestic airline and the apparent crisis afflicting American air traffic controllers, which was widely reported on last year.
Here's one recent contribution to that debate: https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-the-technocapital-machine-is?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
My read of the current state of the debate is that you have the right blaming the issue exclusively on DEI, and some on the left and in the center saying that DEI in the aviation industry is a non-issue due to automation and technological improvements obviating the need for competent personnel, and that such airlines safety issues that do exist are the fault of Boeing's outsourcing and cost-cutting. I think both issues—engineering/production/corporate culture problems and DEI-related personnel policies—are happening at the same time, and that the "crisis," such as it is, is due to an interaction of the two.
I concur. Just look at the ever accelerating electrical and technological instrumentation in cars for example.
If something goes wrong with your car now, it is so inextricably linked to so many other things, it practically takes a degree from MIT to sort it all out (which I dare say few mechanics possess in your average garage), and costs you a fortune to fix!
Even then, they give it back to you with their fingers crossed.
We’ve created so many monsters of adverse consequences in our rush to seem so advanced.
Thank you for your reply. I take your point about the debate you mention, although the article you cite seems to discount the bad effects of DEI in pilot and air traffic controller training in the face of market forces. My point is that you seemed to be using the door plug incident to illustrate the adverse effects of DEI.