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The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

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Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#951

Post by craftsman »

dani__german wrote: post #947
craftsman wrote: post #941

Let's open their repos and see their PRs. Then nobody will need to make assertions about their brilliance or irresponsibility. D.O.G.E.: Make your repos public. Let's see what you are doing. And if you don't have repos, write a script to mirror the codebase and your diffs.

Luke Farritor Deciphered an ancient scroll using AI, he seems to be pretty smart.

Cool.

So anyway, let's see what he (allegedly) is doing with the codebase. Given that these systems are part of the public trust, we should all want to see the code and the DOGE team's PRs as they make improvements.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#953

Post by tonymet »

jimkleiber wrote: post #739

Well I hope in the (very near) future we decide we want the executive branch to have less power, so as to protect ourselves from a unitary executive who goes rogue. Yes it may be less efficient, but more resilient. This drive for uber efficiency can 1) make government more fragile (see toilet paper supply issues during the pandemic) and 2) be a slippery slope to dehumanization (see paper clip maximizing problem).

Have you considered reducing the overall scope of the federal government rather than just the executive branch?

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#954

Post by ModernMech »

webninja wrote: post #946
tqi wrote: post #931

I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…

The democrats couldn’t cut wasteful spending so the republicans have to instead. Ever seen the debt clock?

Can you look at the chart "Federal Debt Trends Over Time, FY 1948 – 2024" and tell me what you see?

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/natio...

The last budget surplus we had was under Bill Clinton - Democrat. But instead we had to go to war in the middle east, give massive tax breaks to corporations, and rain helicopter money during COVID. Those happened under Republican administrations. You can't pretend anymore that Republicans are the fiscally sound ones. And they're going to do it again. Despite all this talk about cutting spending and reducing the deficit, that debt clock is going to keep going up for four years straight, just as the time before, and the time before that.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#955

Post by giancarlostoro »

XorNot wrote: post #751
jimkleiber wrote: post #739

Well I hope in the (very near) future we decide we want the executive branch to have less power, so as to protect ourselves from a unitary executive who goes rogue. Yes it may be less efficient, but more resilient. This drive for uber efficiency can 1) make government more fragile (see toilet paper supply issues during the pandemic) and 2) be a slippery slope to dehumanization (see paper clip maximizing problem).

Toilet paper supply issues were not an example of an efficiency problem, they were misinformation creating a demand shock. Your average supermarket has limited shelf space and stocks to the level that it will reliably clear shelves before new supply turns up, or things spoil. If a whole much of people just buy one extra pack that week, this can easily empty the shelves... Which then gets posted to social media to imp…

I remember seeing a video of a person in a warehouse making fun of the panic, the warehouse was full of more toilet paper than you knew what to do with. TP companies were probably happy, and the smart move is not to send way more supply than a store can contain, because if demand dies, now you have too much just sitting there. It's much cheaper for them to keep it at their warehouses.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#956

Post by sanktanglia »

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 weathered the recession better than nearly any developed nation so the idea that we aren't economically dominant is hilarious

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#957

Post by tqi »

webninja wrote: post #946
tqi wrote: post #931

I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…

The democrats couldn’t cut wasteful spending so the republicans have to instead. Ever seen the debt clock?

Sure, in the same way that a hacksaw and diet/exercise are both effective weight loss tools...

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#958

Post by onetimeusename »

jimkleiber wrote: post #739

Well I hope in the (very near) future we decide we want the executive branch to have less power, so as to protect ourselves from a unitary executive who goes rogue. Yes it may be less efficient, but more resilient. This drive for uber efficiency can 1) make government more fragile (see toilet paper supply issues during the pandemic) and 2) be a slippery slope to dehumanization (see paper clip maximizing problem).

What about protecting ourselves from a biased bureaucracy who use their power for their own political ends? There is a history of this happening now like the IRS scandal and I am surprised how quiet people are about the mass migration event into the country from 2020-2024. It's to the point where people actually say it's just a conspiracy theory and disinformation despite it being a primary concern of most voters according to polls. It's hard to argue that DHS and other bureaucracies were completely innocent. At best they were negligent and incompetent but I think most people know they took steps to make illegal immigration and asylum claims easier to do and help fund immigration routes. This wasn't a platform Biden ran on. He did not win a democratic mandate to open up asylum claims to basically anyone who arrived and grant temporary protected status somewhat arbitrarily. I am surprised no one is concerned about un-elected people being able to do all this and escaping any responsibility.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#959

Post by donutpepperoni »

roland35 wrote: post #675
m463 wrote: post #122

Posts here talk about the legality of this, that what they are doing is not allowed, or that they're doing something naively without understanding. But what is the goal? Maybe what goal to they think they're pursuing? This is hacker news, so I'm asking for an answer without political rhetoric.

Look up Curtis Yarvin. This is all his libertarian tech bro fantasy come to life

Made it easy for anybody who makes it this far:

1. Part one on Curtis Yarvin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrPNvVhKLU

2. Part two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpEg4LS3CT0

No affiliation with the show just thought the episodes were enlightening.

Re: The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE

#960

Post by justonenote »

I have never seen a thread on this site so full of vitriol, hatred, threats of blacklisting for life, threats of violence and general hysteria. And that kind of rhetoric is entirely coming from one side. (or at least the not dead comments of that nature are coming from one side)

Regardless of where you stand, I think a lot of people who have been commenting on here about blacklisting or worse about the named individuals need to check themselves, these are young men who have lives and families.

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