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The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

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Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#241

Post by 9283409232 »

xmprt wrote: post #207
h197BQcV wrote: post #114

They have interesting pedigrees: Meta, Palantir, Neuralink, xAI, SpaceX, Databricks, Energize AI. It seems clear where this is going. Data mining and algorithmic (claimed!) efficiency improvements while working on an essential and critical production system. Since these people claim that "AI" does not need to respect privacy and copyright, perhaps they'll also train a model on this. Where are the Democrats on all thi…

Democrats have bigger fish to fry and DOGE isn't a real department so it doesn't have a whole lot of authority to do things on its own. It can only advise the government so in the end, until an executive order is signed or some other action is taken, there's nothing to be done.

You have no real handle on the scale of damage being done and DOGE is a real department as it was merged into the US Digital Service through executive order.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#242

Post by 9283409232 »

user32489318 wrote: post #210

how is someone’s age relevant? Is a 55 y.o. Software engineer who spent 20 years in a bureaucratic wheel any better than a bright 20yo mind? They both suck in a different way! Writing an entire article with ageism as a center piece is truly pinnacle of American journalism

Experience is an important teacher and a 19 year old doesn't have it.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#243

Post by PeterStuer »

xnx wrote: post #73

Are such drastic action appropriate given the current state of the US? The US probably hasn't been this economically dominant since after WWII. Feels like Chesterton fences are getting torn up left and right by people too young and incurious to possibly understand why those fences might be there.

The US is tethering on the brink of hyperinflation due to not just the last 4 but the last 40 years. Interest on the debt is insurmountable.

You can argue whether the chosen approach is right, but no matter what, a drastically different course is needed as 'business as usual' is a sure way to disaster.

I for one hope the US get their act together at home rather than dragging the world into WWIII.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#244

Post by thrance »

rqtwteye wrote: post #217
xivzgrev wrote: post #77

of course Musk recruits young ambitious kiddos - they work hard, for not much money, and don't question authority (because they're blinded by their ambition) it's only when you get older that you see how rife this is for abuse. as a simple example, if DOGE knows influential Treasury recipients, then they could find ways to extort them. help us and you'll get your money on time. oppose us, and... heck, I'm a treasury…

Dictators always liked to exploit the idealism of young people. The Nazis had the Hitler youth, China had the Red Guards, most prison guards for the Khmer Rogue were teenagers. They happily did the dirty work and could be discarded easily once not useful anymore. I would all be for scrutinizing what government does but you can't just go around and cut everything you don't understand within 15 minutes. And I bet they…

For sure, Musk and his friends will keep their billions of dollars government contracts. No inefficiency there, surprisingly.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#245

Post by freitasm »

paulgb wrote: post #128
ian_d wrote: post #108

Elon is also now claiming to have "deleted" 18F ( https://18f.gsa.gov/ ): https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886498750052327520

This is nuts, 18F was one of the few groups in the federal government that is/was good at making software! (login.gov is a good example of craft you don't generally see in commercial enterprise software, let alone government software) According to that tweet they were apparently “far left” because they also worked on Direct File, which sought to cut out the middleman (TurboTax et al.) and let Americans file taxes dir…

> this seems pretty hard to argue against!

Removing consumer protection would be something hard to argue against too, but yet, here we are: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/bessent-pauses-cfp...

"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shut down a wide variety of operations inside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in his new role as acting director."

Nothing of this makes sense in that all these actions don't seem to make life easier or better for citizens in particular or the world in general.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#246

Post by 9283409232 »

nailer wrote: post #196
breadwinner wrote: post #25

> So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world. ... and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Checks and balances have been neutralized.

> Checks and balances have been neutralized. That seems somewhat inverted - the elected government is creating checks and balances on unelected bureaucrats.

Elon Musk was elected? News to me.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#247

Post by kelnos »

user32489318 wrote: post #210

how is someone’s age relevant? Is a 55 y.o. Software engineer who spent 20 years in a bureaucratic wheel any better than a bright 20yo mind? They both suck in a different way! Writing an entire article with ageism as a center piece is truly pinnacle of American journalism

I find it hard to believe that any 19-22 year old would have the appropriate level of experience to handle this responsibility.

Sure, a 55 year old also may not have the appropriate responsibility, but at least it's reasonable to expect that they could.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#248

Post by affinepplan »

xmprt wrote: post #207
h197BQcV wrote: post #114

They have interesting pedigrees: Meta, Palantir, Neuralink, xAI, SpaceX, Databricks, Energize AI. It seems clear where this is going. Data mining and algorithmic (claimed!) efficiency improvements while working on an essential and critical production system. Since these people claim that "AI" does not need to respect privacy and copyright, perhaps they'll also train a model on this. Where are the Democrats on all thi…

Democrats have bigger fish to fry and DOGE isn't a real department so it doesn't have a whole lot of authority to do things on its own. It can only advise the government so in the end, until an executive order is signed or some other action is taken, there's nothing to be done.

I'm not sure what could possibly be a bigger fish right now. This is, quite literally, the dismantling of our entire government and its public services unfolding before our eyes.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#249

Post by affinepplan »

“Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, just like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on…”

- The Handmaid's Tale

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#250

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

h197BQcV wrote: post #114

They have interesting pedigrees: Meta, Palantir, Neuralink, xAI, SpaceX, Databricks, Energize AI. It seems clear where this is going. Data mining and algorithmic (claimed!) efficiency improvements while working on an essential and critical production system. Since these people claim that "AI" does not need to respect privacy and copyright, perhaps they'll also train a model on this. Where are the Democrats on all thi…

The democrats were there on Election Day. They were shown the door.
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