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US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

bbc.com

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Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#121

Post by kelnos »

boricj wrote: post #14
PaulRobinson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is, it’s not backfired - the example you cited “worked”, because it rapidly identified key personnel without weeks or months of subjective analysis and political posturing by workers and their supervisors. I think in federal government the risks are much higher, and Musk is being an idiot by exposing the America public to those risks, but the feedback loop for him on these previous experiments has been positi…

It only "worked" because the key personnel decided to come back. Had they decided to move on to greener pastures, the end result would've been very different.

Right, but that's all Musk sees: they came back, and so it worked. He seems like the kind of person whose ego would make him believe that any other time he tries this, it would work too.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#122

Post by StefanBatory »

TZubiri wrote: post #19

What's the biggest difference between a startup and a country? Aside from the obvious distinction, Musk has no experience running existing corporations with lots on the line to lose, he comes from move fast break things, great for a social media app, who gives a shit, great for literal moonshots, go big or go home. However when you manage something big, any upside from improving is weighed against its risk of degrada…

"What I find confusing is that this is not typical of conservatism, it's like a progressive right of political outsiders whose express goal is to destroy the government, I don't think that's a controversial statement"

I think it'd be fair to call them populist right? I think they couldn't be further from classical conservatism. Chesterton's Fence is a concept that seems foreign to them.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#123

Post by jimnotgym »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #89
ben_w wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He thinks this is a feature, not a bug. Is he wrong? I don't think so. Twitter lost 84% of its revenue. Do you want the USA GDP to shrink that much over the next few years?

> Twitter lost 84% of its revenue. How much of that is because of politics? Already at the point of takeover, Musk was so hated by half the US for various reasons that it became profitable for major publishing platforms to abandon Twitter/X "on principle". When you're in that situation, nothing on the object-level can help you - neither good management nor technical competence. Revenue depends indirectly on the publi…

Is it politics that people don't want to do business with shitty people? I'd call that being human.

If I owned a bill board space, and set everything around it on fire, wouldn't you think it was my fault that advertisers didn't want to pay to use it any more?

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#124

Post by rcxdude »

physicsguy wrote: post #96
suzzer99 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we fired 25% of the federal govt workforce, it would save 1% from the federal budget. This has nothing to do with trimming waste and everything to do with replacing the government with loyalists from top to bottom. What comes after that isn't going to be pretty.

Is that staff costs only? Or including the things those staff would spend money on too?

Overhead for staff isn't that much more. And even one person can spend money like it's going out of style if they have a budget that says they can and the implicit threat it'll be cut if they don't. They'll just spend it in dumber ways.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#125

Post by kelnos »

adtac wrote: post #11
sour-taste wrote: post #2

This is LITERALLY the twitter layoffs playing out again. They fired people who had credentials and other things they needed so had to hire them back. Everything else aside why repeat the same mistakes? Just go a little slower and give agencies time to compile accurate lists of necessary employees

People should read Elon Musk by Walter Issacson. Here's an excerpt from the chapter on his "algorithm": > [Step 2] Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn't delete enough. He thinks this is a feature, not a bug. Is he wrong? I don't think so.

I don't want to live in a world where it's right. Treating people like this, toying with their livelihoods, is wrong, full stop. It might "work" for certain definitions of "work", but it's morally repugnant.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#127

Post by jimnotgym »

adtac wrote: post #64
operationcwal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I know that the US government is more complex than twitter lol. I just think it's stupid to automatically invalidate an idea because it was tried in a less complex system.

... and failed to turn that less complex system into a more profitable company

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#128

Post by ben_w »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #89
ben_w wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He thinks this is a feature, not a bug. Is he wrong? I don't think so. Twitter lost 84% of its revenue. Do you want the USA GDP to shrink that much over the next few years?

> Twitter lost 84% of its revenue. How much of that is because of politics? Already at the point of takeover, Musk was so hated by half the US for various reasons that it became profitable for major publishing platforms to abandon Twitter/X "on principle". When you're in that situation, nothing on the object-level can help you - neither good management nor technical competence. Revenue depends indirectly on the publi…

If Musk was so politically toxic as to drive an 84% revenue decline, the Republican politicians wouldn't have allowed him to support them or their party.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#129

Post by kelnos »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #39
ben_w wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He thinks this is a feature, not a bug. Is he wrong? I don't think so. Twitter lost 84% of its revenue. Do you want the USA GDP to shrink that much over the next few years?

The US's GDP isn't based on the amount of bloat in its government. Sure spending finds its way into the economy, but tax dollars saved also will. As for Twitter/X - the goal isn't revenue but profit, and Twitter was not in a good shape before Elon. Musk recently noted they are barely breaking even now, and the recent sale of X debt was just above original pricing. Considering big advertisers are coming back to X, tha…

So essentially the process here is:

1. Buy Twitter.

2. Fire most of the staff.

3. Piss everyone off so all the advertisers shun you.

4. Barely get the company breaking even, mainly due to all the cuts, even though the platform itself is barely limping along.

5. Cozy up to a wannabe dictator that dupes (slightly less than) half the country to elect him as president again.

6. Make the advertisers realize that their continued prosperity depends on bending the knee to you, due to your political connections. Not to mention your platform is now a way for people to buy favors from the government.

7. Profit.

(No need for a "???" step before "Profit", well done...)

We truly live in the darkest timeline.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#130

Post by surgical_fire »

m_fayer wrote: post #119
tossandthrow wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only works because you allow yourself to sorely disrespect human beings, their livelihood and their feeling of safety. A strategy that seems to be hot in the US, but is an utter ethical abomination and shameful.

I thought that a reasonably free, vital, innovative, and prosperous society was compatible with a fundamental respect for human dignity. That's why I moved to Europe. Now it seems I was overoptimistic, but that doesn't mean we should wholly embrace backsliding right into the 19th century version of "progress".

It is the same reason I moved to Europe.

I don't think I was overoptimistic. It was literally the best decision I ever made, in every aspect I can think of.

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