If a coding error can ruin people's lives like this than you're doing it wrong
After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
31–40 of 318 posts
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#32Is there any proof that they're coding errors? A simpler explanation, to me at least, is that they first blanket fired people by dubious criteria, and are now using this as an excuse to backpedal when they realize they've cut something important.
DOGE did take DOD's AutoRIF which was meant to assist with RIF calculations and modify it. It was also required to be reviewed by a human before initiating any actual separations with it, though DOGE probably went the efficient route and did a "lgtm" rubber stamp on it without looking. However it was just meant to do calculations based on RIF requirement (years in service, veterans preference stuff, and the like) not make any unsupervised decisions based on it.
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#33> “Even if they stopped now, a lot of damage has been done,” another NINDS investigator says. “I think it’s a sinking ship. I don’t mean my lab, I mean biomedical research.”
It already was, though. We lost about 2 decades of alzheimer's research and probably about 30 drug candidates, and that's just one subfield.
So what is your point?
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#34Yep, the ‘ol ”my finger slipped and I accidentally pushed ‘select * from table;’ instead of a complex and thoughtful set of filters”
That type. It happens, we’ve all been there
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#35Is there any proof that they're coding errors? A simpler explanation, to me at least, is that they first blanket fired people by dubious criteria, and are now using this as an excuse to backpedal when they realize they've cut something important.
It's either an actual 'coding error' because DOGE doesn't actually understand WTF they're doing or it's what you're suggesting.
So it's Incompetence or Malice. Pick your poison.
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#36It’s wild how America is just complacent with the destruction of the federal government. We see all of these red flags across the agencies yet there’s minimal uproar. I have seen a few protests (50501, recently) but nothing that stops this wanton destruction. - $6.6T sell off in market due to Orange administration trade war in just _2 days_ - USAID decimated - US trade partners lost - Federal agency head count losses…
> Wonder if this is what it was like in the months preceding the _2008 subprime mortage crisis_
Some people were warning about possible problems in the markets, but no, in general the media were chugging along as normal, they're most excitable when they're either against the ruling force or there's blood in the water. This reminds me of 2016-2020.
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#37If a coding error can ruin people's lives like this than you're doing it wrong
The quotation marks in this article are under a heavy load.
Blaming people you just fired for a mistake you made firing people is as timeless as it is pathetic.
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#38Is there any proof that they're coding errors? A simpler explanation, to me at least, is that they first blanket fired people by dubious criteria, and are now using this as an excuse to backpedal when they realize they've cut something important.
Software doesn't fire people, people fire people.
"Coding error" could mean anywhere from "we wrote an actual good-faith attempt to measure some sort of performance, there was a bug, and we blindly followed what it said without double checking" to "the code we wrote to 'select * from employees' when firing people was in 'error' in hindsight because we now wish to have some of those people working for us again".
No matter how you cut it, in the absolute best case scenario, the people doing the firing were so incompetent that no one can tell they weren't being malicious.
The median scenario, they were simply being malicious.
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#39Is there any proof that they're coding errors? A simpler explanation, to me at least, is that they first blanket fired people by dubious criteria, and are now using this as an excuse to backpedal when they realize they've cut something important.
The article somewhat buries the facts but a couple of important ones:
- They were able to get them reinstated within 24 hours.
- A presentation seen by Science said the overall NIH RIF (reduction in force) was based on administrative codes and that some “may not have been intentional.”
Re: After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work
#40In general it is a good practice to assume other parties are making a good faith effort, but after so many obvious cockups, that grace has been exhausted. My assumption is that there is a lot of blow-back so they are restoring a few high profile names so they can say, "see, we aren't stopping science!". It is good this handful of people are back on the job, but I assume the NIH is like most other organizations -- the…
Who's they? The Department of Health and Human Services?