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After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

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Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#271

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

kelnos wrote: post #154
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no methodology at work, it's just indiscriminate firings to cull as many people as possible. This is clear from other other departments where they fired everyone they could. "Coding error" is just a modern version of "the dog ate my homework". Lame but people will swallow it. They knew what they were doing, they just regret getting caught. Sadly, once the firings, rehirings, refirings, court cases, and compen…

> There's no methodology at work, it's just indiscriminate firings to cull as many people as possible. That is the methodology, though. Musk's biography (I believe) contains a bit about how one of his business strategies when trying to make drastic changes is to just fire, fire, fire, fire people. And if you don't realize afterward that you fired too many, and have to hire back at least 10% of them, then you didn't f…

Mass firing is such a destructive process, you lose good people who were hard to source in the first place and it destroys moral and trust. If you're broadly firing people, you fucked up, it's not some magical skill, it means you can't plan and manage your business.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#272

Post by const_cast »

somenameforme wrote: post #127
rexpop wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only were an isolated incident, and not the latest in a long train of abuses and usurpations.

Except it's the same in literally all of these articles. Some relatively minor mistake is taken and blown up into some huge degree of maliciousness or unprecedented incompetence. People then 'social mediaize' it all by taking it at face value, and then getting each other even more riled up - exactly like a mob. It's easy to see where this is coming from because each writer of these sort of articles likely had colleag…

> Some relatively minor mistake is taken and blown up into some huge degree of maliciousness or unprecedented incompetence

Because this is exactly what’s happening, and there’s some people who are informed enough about it and others who fall for thinly veiled plausible deniability.

The thing is that if you take each of the thousands of “mistakes” made and look at them in isolation, and fully believing the words of this administration, then they might individually seem small.

But when we see thousands of mistakes and the repeated lies of those behind said mistakes, then we recognize it for what it is - a systemic failure.

The repeated lack of accountability from both this administration and its constituents is appalling. It’s not enough that everything is constantly being fucked up. We must also deny, deny, deny. The animosity is obvious, but moreover, it is correct.

The plausible deniability ship sailed long ago. When those in power repeatedly affirm their intent to be malicious, we must believe them. When those in power repeatedly make the same mistakes, we must acknowledge they are not mistakes. We must see this for what it is: a plan, a strategy.

If the strategy seems evil or destructive, that does not mean the strategy does not exist. It means the strategy is evil and destructive.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#273

Post by joquarky »

wesselbindt wrote: post #167
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

Anyone with half a brain understands the argument you put forward, and there is not a single doubt on my mind that the current administration does. But the point is not the savings. The point is incapacitating the government to the point where privatization starts to looks like a viable alternative. This has been the strategy since Thatcher and Reagan, look up "starving the beast". This administration is just really…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Facilitating the link because I hope more people see this.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#274

Post by joquarky »

trilbyglens wrote: post #235
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

I think you've actually hit on one of the fundamental pillars of modern conservatism in America, which is that they don't actually believe in civil society nor do they believe that the government exists to benefit people. Conservative ideology these days pretty much limits government to maintaining trade agreements and arresting people that they don't like.

I believe that many of them read Snow Crash and yearn for pushing society into "Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities"

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#275

Post by joquarky »

sagarpatil wrote: post #93
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

Rightly said. The Trump administration’s focus seems to be more on saving/making money and less about the overall effects on the people who are getting affected by it.

They think they can run a government like a corporation.

The problem is that corporationa tend toward brutalistic psychopathic behavior, while the role of a government should be (IMO) to nurture sustainable growth.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#276

Post by joquarky »

thakoppno wrote: post #114
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

> It is about total benefit to society, period. What should we spend the next dollar on to achieve this goal?

Education is usually a safe bet.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#277

Post by jmward01 »

rafaelmn wrote: post #158
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

>It is about total benefit to society, period. Money is the best tool we have to measure that. Sure it has pathological cases, but overall it's the least bad version to assign value. In the government case it's much worse at this since it's not voluntary and measuring aggregate government services vs. tax. The consumption/price is completely unrelated, etc. >I know of several people that are 'employed' but net negati…

> Money is the best tool we have to measure that.

How you measure matters. Looking at only the individual misses the value of the organization they are with. If businesses did this then only sales would be employed since they are the only ones actually bringing in money right? Everyone else is a net negative. With government you would have to step back from even the organization level view. The National Parks Service doesn't make money right? That whole thing can be cut because they are a net negative right? If you are going to use money as a value signal, which I am arguing is a very flawed signal at the government level, then at least go to something like median income and not the individual or organization level. It is terribly flawed to say 'high median income - good country' but at least it is a money signal that, maybe, captures a few features about the utility of government. I'd argue strongly against this signal but at least then you could look at various actions as a whole and say 'overall median income is up/down because of this move' and then things like employing someone that isn't great at their job just to keep them off the street becomes an obvious win because median income is higher because of that.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#278

Post by joquarky »

imgabe wrote: post #139
jmward01 wrote: post #50

The obvious methodology at work here is 'fire everyone then hopefully re-hire only what is blindingly obviously needed'. There are many, many problems with this approach in a business setting but even more from a governmental setting. The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business…

> The first, and what should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of empathy, is that these are real people who's lives are being toyed with. It isn't like you are trying out a new business process. You are literally playing with entire lives here as if they are disposable things. This alone makes what is happening inhumane. This makes no sense. It is not a life, it is a job. The person isn't dead. They get a generous…

Funny that you end your comment this way, as the government is one of the few organizations that readily employed the disabled.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#279

Post by joquarky »

imgabe wrote: post #245
autoexec wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most universally hated companies are also among the richest. Voting with your wallet is a myth. The entire point of a private company is to confiscate your income. They must charge you as much as they possibly can while providing you with as little as they can possibly get away with. Maybe you've even noticed prices going up while enshittification and shrinkflation increases.

The richest companies do the most business. If you have a billion transactions a year and 0.1% of the time something goes wrong and a customer is pissed off, that's a million pissed off people writing angry reviews online. That makes it seem like they are "universally hated", but you don't hear anything from the 99.9% of people who had perfectly fine, unremarkable experiences. In my lifetime I've gone from paying a f…

In my lifetime, I've gone from $20 copays with no deductible to $60 copays with a $7000 deductible.

Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

#280

Post by joquarky »

imgabe wrote: post #204
autoexec wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This makes no sense. It is not a life, it is a job. The person isn't dead People's health insurance is tied to their job. Mass firings by the largest employer in the nation could easily result in several deaths as medical treatments are disrupted and medications missed, delayed, or changed with insurance companies. Not that death is required to screw up your life either. This is not a great time to be out of work.…

> People's health insurance is tied to their job. Mass firings by the largest employer in the nation could easily result in several deaths as medical treatments are disrupted and medications missed, delayed, or changed with insurance companies. No, this could not "easily" happen. People get COBRA to continue their health coverage after losing their job. There is Medicaid and other programs for people who can't afford…

> People get COBRA to continue their health coverage

You obviously live in an ivory tower.

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