Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the video. I'll watch in full later. But it is interesting that he opens with The Big Dig in Boston. There have been several counts, including prosecutions, of fraud in that project. It wasn't just because it was complex. There was rampant fraud and corruption. After some skimming, it didn't appear that that video covers that. I have also read anecdotes about that project. For example, stories of contracto…
He does talk about corruption a bit but he focuses on other factors more.
Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
101–110 of 153 posts
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#102Back in 2015 when I still thought I'd be a physicist, I was a summer intern at Fermilab on the MicroBooNE experiment. The sense of excitement and teamwork on the 10th floor was something I dearly missed when I went to CERN the year after. Every day at 3pm was "coffee and cookies", and my colleagues and I would join the line filled with physicists of all ages and from across the lab, to grab a cookie or maybe two. On…
When I last worked in person in IT, a few members of my team would get up at 2pm to get coffee and chat about work and life. Different people went in the mornings. It was really useful to team-build and feel decent about work. People who say "I don't have friends at work" with pride are completely foreign to me. I don't understand how people are supposed to have any joy at work, or get over comms barriers, when there…
> a few members of my team would get up at 2pm to get coffee and chat about work and life
If I stopped programming arbitrarily at 2:00pm when my hours are 9:00am-5:00pm I expect to be let go (unless I'm taking this as my lunch period). Especially to socialize over coffee. As a production-level IC I just can't do that ethically, and perhaps this is a personal fault... but I'm paid to keep my nose down and develop software solutions, not to socialize with colleagues. If we need to meet over work it's best to get that on the calendar so there's some expectation of formality - not in some adhoc social hour/afternoon.
> People who say "I don't have friends at work" with pride are completely foreign to me.
I don't say it with "pride," but I have 100% learned to put distance between my personal and professional lives. Example: every time I have had to deal with suicide scares it's always been a professional relationship/colleague of sorts. It's been three times now, and for some reason I seem like a trustable enough person that people put this on me. I hate it.
Then, there's people who I have thought were close friends who completely ghosted me after moving to a different company - who knows, maybe it's me. But I've heard lots of people express similar frustrations and it's just pushed me to consider every work friendship a "work friendship." I have more equitable and consistent relationships when I make friends outside of my profession, I invest my time and energy there.
Finally there's the emotional investment. When it comes to employment I am not part of a "family," and I'd really appreciate that sort of language to stop. Right now. I am selling my time and labor to a business to solve problems and fulfill operational duties that they require of me. At any point, employer or employee can terminate that relationship because "at will." This is surely not a "family," and I personally believe it is not an ideal spot to sink your social energy. I've seen people have their careers pulled from underneath them after over-investing socially into the company - they do not do well. I'm not here to emotionally invest during my 9-5, I'm here for business. Unless it's a requirement of the job (sales, vendors, talent aq, etc.) I am not putting myself out there socially/emotionally.
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Sorry to share some anecdotes but I think there are very valid reasons to put distance between your work relationships and your personal ones, purposefully erecting a buffer. I think it's very valid if someone wants to keep their work relationships just that: work relationships.
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't even go so far as to say it's either the theorists or experimentalists fault. The problem might just be that it becomes physically impractical to the point of practical impossibility to observe the nature of things beyond a certain scale to us. And that's just, you know, the nature of things.
At what point do you separate that which is only of imagination and that which exists bridging the physical and imagination?
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I last worked in person in IT, a few members of my team would get up at 2pm to get coffee and chat about work and life. Different people went in the mornings. It was really useful to team-build and feel decent about work. People who say "I don't have friends at work" with pride are completely foreign to me. I don't understand how people are supposed to have any joy at work, or get over comms barriers, when there…
I can have lunch and water cooler chat friends at work, but rarely do they turn into invite over to bbq on the weekend friends. There's a big difference. You can be friendly, but when something happens at work and one of you no longer works there...things get weird. Those weekend bbqs that you had with work friends no longer happen, or they keep going for a bit, but conversations are awkward since the still employed…
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#105I guess what I'm trying to say is that the hacker mentality extends far beyond software. The hacker mentality is a way of life.
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#106It's easy to criticize Fermilab for cost overruns and delays, but we must remember that they are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge and technology. The nature of cutting-edge research means that there will always be unknowns and challenges that cannot be anticipated.
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#107Back in 2015 when I still thought I'd be a physicist, I was a summer intern at Fermilab on the MicroBooNE experiment. The sense of excitement and teamwork on the 10th floor was something I dearly missed when I went to CERN the year after. Every day at 3pm was "coffee and cookies", and my colleagues and I would join the line filled with physicists of all ages and from across the lab, to grab a cookie or maybe two. On…
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#108It’s worth noting that these large-scale projects, like the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, are incredibly complex and have no real historical precedent. The sheer scale and ambition of these endeavors make it nearly impossible to accurately predict timelines and budgets. It's easy to criticize Fermilab for cost overruns and delays, but we must remember that they are pushing…
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok now I’m curious what beer is served at CERN. I am not familiar with any Swiss beer and only a handful of unspectacular French beers.
I don't think it was particularly good or bad, when I was there. I don't drink beer none of my friends ever said "this beer is great" or "this beer sucks".
Re: Major shake-up coming for Fermilab, the troubled U.S. particle physics center
#110My Fermilab story: when I was designing my dissertation experiment it became clear that i would need ~$100k in silicon strip charged particle detectors, and that no company would ever microbond the thousands of connections for me due to the low volume. Fermilab gave me detectors that had been QC rejects from the outer barrel of the CMS detector at CERN for free, and bonded them to my boards for essentially materials…
Reminds me of this story: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassb... There are continuous technical workforce challenges in science because the methods keep advancing. If only there were money it. Instead we have engineers, scientists, and physicians driving Uber and we outsource and offshore the entire scientific supply chain.
Why do you believe this?