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Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
171–176 of 176 posts
Re: Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there is a major flaw in the analogy. Basically, maintenance of complex systems or assets, are intellectually demanding tasks. All your examples, however, are completely the opposite. I am not saying that the jobs do not require skills, it's just that these skills are not that valuable. Also maintainer adds value in the positive way. Where all your example is to prevent value loss. The 2 are fundamentally dif…
> Basically, maintenance of complex systems or assets, are intellectually demanding tasks. Not as hard as making those systems in the first place. > I am not saying that the jobs do not require skills, it's just that these skills are not that valuable. I'm not convinced that an average network engineer does a more challenging (or valuable) job than an average car mechanic.
Come and work on our system. Poor database design and way too much complexity in simple tasks.Maintaining it is far harder than a rewrite would be.
Re: Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hoffer is wrong. He's confusing different military philosophies with this mixed up idea about national identity regarding "maintenance". I don't think anyone would suggest Germany didn't perform a minor miracle by rebuilding as quickly as they did (with massive support), but the Russians went from having half their country burned to the ground, to a world superpower (also with a large amount of support), in a shorter…
Who supported Russia after the war?
I was referring to the massive lend-lease support, and the continued industrial support provided to the Soviet Union during the war, not after war. I should have been more clear about that.
Re: Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, Japan was my first thought when I read that. You can't tell me with a straight face that they don't maintain everything to within an inch of its life.
Ironically except for the single most maintained item in the west, which is a house. In Japan they are treated as basically disposable.
Gotta have a gold sink in your economy somewhere to fight inflation.
Re: Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Basically, maintenance of complex systems or assets, are intellectually demanding tasks. Not as hard as making those systems in the first place. > I am not saying that the jobs do not require skills, it's just that these skills are not that valuable. I'm not convinced that an average network engineer does a more challenging (or valuable) job than an average car mechanic.
Come and work on our system. Poor database design and way too much complexity in simple tasks.Maintaining it is far harder than a rewrite would be.
> Poor database design and way too much complexity in simple tasks.
This actually supports my point that making a decent system in the first place is hard. And if you have a reasonable estimate that a rewrite would be cheaper than incurred maintenance costs, it might be worth it.
I was speaking generally though: an average quality system and average maintenance work. Some systems are terrible and fall apart from an angry glance, some are so good they require almost no maintenance. In my personal experience systems maintenance can be menial and time consuming, sometimes clever, but it ain't no rocket science.
Re: Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
would appreciate a reference. p.s. many parts of eastern europe has been destroyed during the war as well; and was getting rebuild themselves.
Most of what was left of factories in the Soviet occupation zone (the later GDR) was dismantled and moved to the Soviet Union as reparation in the years after WW2. Here's some info in English about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_German_Democrat... When I was young I heard a lot of crazy stories about the Russians in Germans (I grew up in the Erzgebirge mountains where the Russians mined the Uraniu…
Interesting, thanks.