Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

kcrw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 774 posts

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#421

Post by permo-w »

fennecbutt wrote: post #388
jzb wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth making the point: a lot of people simply don’t see it (yet?) for what it is and still support the people doing it.

Well there's also just the "own the libs durrrrr!" crowd. Politics has become a sports game. I lack confidence in a good chunk of the population to vote in their best interests, perhaps democracy isn't the right way. Or voting on something should require an exam on the subject.

the second someone like Trump gets hold of a voter exam setting process, they're either going to abuse it to their advantage, or abolish it entirely, after having used it as a wedge issue to set the working classes against "elites"

also, in the US, taking exams in order to vote is a massively sensitive issue as it was one of the ways that blacks were restricted from voting even when they legally had the right

more technically, where do you draw the line? if it's too easy, you're going to insult people without even getting the desired effect. if it's too hard, then the demographic will skew towards people who work in the industries affected by the policy. for a second that sounds good, and when it comes to something like culture or maybe health, then sure, but there are many industries that would burn the world to the ground if it ensured them 20% annual growth. can you imagine if the only people able to vote on financial regulations were people who know a lot about finance? there'd be famines within the year

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#422

Post by asacrowflies »

magicloop wrote: post #40

The real game the current administration is playing is to land on Mars before their current term expires. This mirrors the political, prestige, and technology triumph of the Kennedy administration. This is why the BBB Bill refocussed on the Mars mission despite having cuts. What is being cut is otherwise a symptom of the budget deficit (7%) and the fact that politically they cut areas where there are not republican v…

This is nothing but lies and bullshit ....landing a man on Mars in the next three years is so batshit insane I worry for your sanity.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#423

Post by asacrowflies »

lostmsu wrote: post #100
perihelions wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "before their current term expires" > "This mirrors the political, prestige, and technology triumph of the Kennedy administration" Trump may have said "before my term ends"; what JFK said was "before this decade is out". IMHO, this is like a diametric opposite of Richard M. Nixon landing on the moon, two presidencies after Kennedy (and of opposite party); acting for Americans' obvious shared interests (not personal…

> a Trump-like figure, spouting vapid promises of greatness Can't pinpoint who you are referring to. Gemini thinks Yeltsin? But neither it nor I remember any "greatness" promises from the guy.

Putin you idiot.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#424

Post by FirmwareBurner »

kylecordes wrote: post #212
orochimaaru wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why won’t the skillset be transferable to places like space x, Amazon kuiper, blue origin, or any of the big defense tech or start ups (eg anduril)?

Likely so, but you have probably listed a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers.

>a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers

So....the same challenges that everyone working in the private sector has? What am I missing here?

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#425

Post by jebarker »

robertlagrant wrote: post #419
jebarker wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their science missions are inspiring, but not as inspiring as they ought to be Are they 1% as inspiring as what the DoD does with their budget? I don't mean to be snarky, but level of inspiration is pretty subjective and difficult to put a price tag on. Honestly, I feel like the NASA budget needs to be considered in context relative to the DoD budget and then these cuts look much less convincing as being necessary.

> Are they 1% as inspiring as what the DoD does with their budget? People aren't inspired by safe shipping lanes. But quite a few are alive because of what global shipping enables.

I agree that inspiration is probably not a great metric for many tax payer funded organizations including DoD and NASA

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#426

Post by nomel »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #155
justin66 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NASA needs an overhaul. This isn’t how I would do it, but that’s not how things work in the real world. SLS is the elephant in the room and is a complete disaster. It’s a jobs program limping along decades old technology when the commercial options are better. It’s more accurate to say that Congress needs an overhaul. Over the years NASA administrators have pushed back on SLS to the fullest extent you’d expect, but…

It’s going to kill institutional knowledge and be so expensive to repair after regime change.

Ever org I've worked for slowly became unable to innovate because of "institutional knowledge".

I think it's important to forget, to some extent, every once in a while. It forces a new traversal of the problem space, but in a modern context, with modern tools, fresh eyes, and a better understanding of what's needed. Thus we have Space X.

There are some great interviews with Jim Keller, who has a similar perspective: you need to restart every some years, to not stagnate.

From what I've seen, if you want to stamp out a young engineers creativity, start them working in a big org.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#428

Post by QuantumGood »

convolvatron wrote: post #328
QuantumGood wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an entropic force that leads most organizations to optimize for survival of the organization over time, and worsen the ability to serve the ostensible purpose the organization exists to serve. Changing the type of the organization doesn't matter much if this tendency is not addressed honestly in the mission statement or somewhere similar.

I was totally with you until you proposed that a careful mission statement is the solution to organizational ossification. I've always considered them a symptom, and to the extent that they are prescriptive, you can safely assume that the operational reality is the polar opposite.

I said "honest" not "careful", but really it's about actual intentions, not paper promises. It's just a label for intentions, and as you point out, manipulated to hide intentions more than describe them.
Post reply on HN