Today, I had a work meeting with a young but eager fellow. We had a chat, I explained a few things, and he agreed with the technical choices I suggested. However, the issue arose when I mentioned writing a few lines of a "tutorial" on how to do certain things. His response: "Can't you make a video?" Surprised (but not too much), I argued that in my opinion, a concise written tutorial is more practical than a pointless video. His reply: "We only watch videos now, even my colleagues look up solutions on YouTube." This is despite the wealth of excellent tutorials on StackExchange and various blogs. I wonder: why waste half an hour watching a video that could be summarized in a few lines of text (saving time for both the producer and the user)?
Why do Japanese politicians hold THEMSELVES accountable for failures, whilst elsewhere politicians just make excuses? Are we doing something fundamentally wrong?
How many cabinet ministers/senators even travel on public transport with citizens?
We were both big fans of “Lost” when it started … and then kind of got tired of the constant shifting sands in terms of storylines and were totally pissed off at the ending (mostly because the writers themselves had dismissed the ending early on, but relied on people’s short memories when it came to the end). But we never knew, or even considered then, some of the implications of the stories being told or the background.
The following Vanity Fair article casts the spotlight on some horrendous things going on behind the scenes and be warned, it was so horrible that I couldn’t complete the article. I have no respect for Damon Lindelof or Carlton Cuse (not that I had before, but I did recognise their names and would watch shows involving them … but no more!) and it is horrible how human beings can behave this way …
"When #engineers frame their work as apolitical or “purely” technical, they are not being naïve. Some may genuinely believe that #technology can be fully neutral, but many rhetorically employ a strategic naivety, because they know it allows the #IETF to continue to exist, and their employers to continue to benefit from its decisions about internet standards.
This cultural imperative to downplay or sideline politics in" #tech decisions creates a steep hurdle for society.
⸺ https://www.criticalinfralab.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LoudMen-CorinneCath-CriticalInfraLab.pdf
"Micromanagement is fundamentally incompatible with psychological safety. And without psychological safety, teams don’t innovate, learn from their mistakes, or grow in ability."