This sums up my career. We should grab a beer and bitch about work. That's what most of my colleagues do to cope.
Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
211–220 of 261 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're comparing within generations, he's probably talking about the Su-27 and MiG-29. Kinematically, those two platforms are probably able to match or exceed the F-15 and F-16 in at least some flight regimes. Remember that when Boyd applied his design principles, they were set up to design planes that could defeat any current designs - the performance characteristics of the Flanker and Fulcrum were not really kno…
> Kinematically, those two platforms are probably able to match or exceed the F-15 and F-16 in at least some flight regimes. I'd need to read more, but I don't doubt that the four in-service aircraft are comparable. The design I was referring to was that of the YF-16, the prototype plane Boyd developed in secret. It was so maneuverable that it enabled a completely new type of combat tactic, called in the book I read…
If the book is "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" by Robert Coram, then I've also read it.
It's very easy to over state what Boyd did. As in, what he did in reality was so fantastic and unbelievable that it's very easy to attribute additional not fully truthful aspects to him.
Unfortunately, can't really talk about the YF-16's combat potential as a dog fighter all that much. But what I can say is that if you apply Boyd's earlier work (E-M theory and E-M charts) to the the YF-16, then its very likely that you -can- compare the various airplanes. While it's certainly true that the YF-16 could perform the buttonhook turn to significant advantage in a wide variety of situations (the buttonhook turn is used when being pursued. By initiating a ridiculous tight turn, you could dump enough velocity to cause the opponent to overshoot, and then MOST importantly, the YF-16 had the thrust-weight ratio required to rapidly regain the energy it had just lost and allow it to reengage), it's quite likely that either the MiG-29 or Su-27 could have beat it in other regimes. For example, look at how the F-4 (a terrible dog fighter) was able to find advantageous engagements against generally aerodynamically superior MiGs during Vietnam (aided by Boyd's E-M work).
It should also be pointed out that amongst the things that the Air Force forced onto the F-16 was a much better radar. Nearly all the major changes made to the production aircraft degraded its talents as a dogfighter (as you point out) while vastly increasing its flexibility and its ability to engage at long-range - decisions which in retrospect were massively beneficial. The biggest thing to ding the USAF with is that they did not sufficiently increase wing area to compensate for the mass increase. In other words, Boyd's vision of where air combat was heading wasn't really spot on.
Also, credit should go to where it belongs. Boyd did not design the YF-16 by himself. The rest of the "Fighter Mafia" deserve just as much credit, as well as the designers at General Dynamics.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#213Loads of comments already, but here goes. My brother used to work for Big-DoD. He quit, for reasons you explain here. But, he did tell me about a time his perspective was changed. He decided to stay late in the cube farm. His original idea was to go around to all the cubes and count to number of Dilbert Cartoons stapled to the oatmeal gray walls. he thought this would be evidence that everyone was cynical and full of…
None of those takeaways seem to be it to me. I think it was just that the people saw the job as a means to an end and didn't particularly care about the management pivoting or bullshitting as long as they got paid and could support themselves and their families.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he designs the best fighter plane ever flown by pilots Easy there, comrade.
Perhaps I was a little hasty making that assertion. I'd be very interested in hearing about a plane that was actually built that improved on Boyd's design.
You seem to be into your planes, have you heard of the Avro Arrow?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow
There is also a pretty good film about it's development starring Dan Ackroyd.
I don't know much about planes, but I remember in High School (90s) when we learned about the Arrow, it was reported that no fighter jet had yet to match her specs. Looks like the F-18 comes close to the Avro top speed.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#215John Boyd had this problem. Boyd was the best fighter pilot in the Air Force. At the Fighter Weapons School, the Air Force's advanced tactics course that the Navy's Top Gun school was later based on, he laid down a challenge to anyone who would take it, in forty seconds, Boyd would maneuver from from having you on his six, to being on your six and winning the battle. It only ever took him twenty seconds and he was ne…
Holy hell - I have got to look this guy up. Edit: I did some reading. A lot of sources referenced a very abrasive manner. That could have been a major factor into why his ideas weren't used more.
The biography is an excellent read: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38840.Boyd
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly enough (in the context of this thread) my personal corollary to that is: "Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by bad management."
Pretty much a noop, since bad management is a subcategory of incompetence.
It's about not blaming bad code/product on developer incompetence though.
It's a leftover from a time when I unfairly criticised a number of programmers who were actually heroically fighting to deliver a quality product under bad management.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#2175.
You are the minority, so better adjust your attitude and take it like a man.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
We like domain expertise, but empirically it's not critical. The Airbnbs knew zero about the hospitality industry when they started. They just knew they'd had a life-changing experience when they rented out airbeds on their floor during a conference. The Stripes didn't know anything about payments before they started Stripe, except what any hacker who'd tried to process payments before Stripe did (that existing optio…
> We like domain expertise, but empirically it's not critical. That's quite a statement. Companies like AirBnB are exceptions, not rules. If you look at most of the top tech IPOs in 2013, which is as legitimate a way as any of identifying companies that have actually delivered liquidity to employees, there's domain expertise everywhere. Examples: Veeva - founder was previously at salesforce.com, PeopleSoft, IBM Marke…
I just mentioned 3. There are many more. Like I said, we like domain expertise. But when you have that many exceptions there's not much of a rule left.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#219Maybe you should stop working at startups.
Re: Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
#220You are none of the above. If you've got a few years of development experience in companies like that, I recommend you "find a boss [you] respect" by becoming your own boss. Start with consulting. These engagements are different than employment because often times they're not full-time and you can stagger a couple of contracts together at the same time. This is to your advantage because you now have two "bosses" (cli…
You could do that. But you may find you traded one boss you don't like for seven bosses you don't like.