6 ms·

I am not an US citizen, but I have more faith in him as a president than any other of the candidates, after all you should trust him he is, sort of, an engineer

by leojg 11y ago

nanny 11y ago
Are you kidding? So what if he's an engineer? The guy's a lunatic and this is nothing more than some weird publicity stunt. It's a cry for attention, nothing more. This whole race has become a circus.
- presty 11y ago
  you guys need to take things a little bit less seriously.. leojg was using the "Trust Me, I'm an Engineer" meme http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trust-me-im-an-engineer http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trust-me-im-an-engineer
  - leojg 11y ago
    yeah... but it seems that HN users lack of sense of humor :(
    - krapp 11y ago
      Humor is not intellectually stimulating, and has been optimized away in favor of elitist posturing. Memes are for the normals on Reddit. Hacker News is serious business.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        Nah, HN is totally fine with humor. But it has to actually be funny. Unfortunately, for unfunny people, it's easy to confuse this with "no humor allowed."
        JoeAltmaier 11y ago
        Not quite. I think that HN is such a diverse group, its hard to tell sarcasm from a straight answer. Especially in a text forum. So its darned confusing.
        mikeash 11y ago
        I'd say both. There's lots of sarcasm that gets missed, and also lots of unfunny attempts at humor that are obvious in their nature.
    - leojg 11y ago
      Sure, because this article is the most serious in the world... and all the HN post are extreamly serious... come on dude, re read yourself, you are talking about "normals" what are you, some kind of godlike being?
- zobzu 11y ago
  id rather have a lunatic engineer than a lunatic politician, but that's just me.
- dynomight 11y ago
  "This whole race has become a circus" >has become
Retra 11y ago
What is it about engineers that make you think they are generally qualified to lead a country?
- vetinari 11y ago
  The entire politbyro of PRC is made of engineers. Xi Jinping is chemical engineer, for example. They seem to be way more competent running their country than bunch of lawyers ru(i)nning US.
  - meddlepal 11y ago
    Yea... the Chinese stock market is doing so great right now.
    - angdis 11y ago
      Stock markets go up and down, so what? Governments can only do so much to keep the economy positive. The real problem with China is repression of its citizens and the complete lack of protections and "safety nets" that is taken for granted in civilized western nations. I don't think that has anything to do with leadership being engineer-heavy rather than lawyer-heavy.
    - t2015_08_25 11y ago
      Yup and their human rights and pollution records are excellent, too :) </s> People forget that civic leadership is a requirement for running a country. Just like managers have to "herd cats," politicians have to herd a more diverse group of roles. I'm not trying to garnish sympathy for politicians, I just want to point out that their requirements are not easily translated from any one field, such as real estate, engineering, business leadership, chemistry, etc. Also, their decisions are constantly compromises. Most people cringe when they have to compromise b/t two things such as cost and quality. Politicians typically compromise b/t about ten things like: legacy, human rights, quality of life, cost, reputation, longevity, state of relationships at local, county, state, region, national and international level, etc, etc. They even have to compromise against themselves in order to stay in power. It would make me completely ill to have nearly all of my decisions play out with a near 10% net efficiency :)
JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Engineers think we need an Engineer for leader. Businessmen, a businessman. Soldiers want a soldier king. And so on. What do we really need for a leader? A leader. A consensus builder. A decision maker. And inspiration.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  Eventually we'll realize, we don't need leaders. At least, not leaders who stand above us and make decisions. Inspiration is fine.
- rwmj 11y ago
  Except in times of war (and even then), you really want someone who gets out of the way. Things run themselves pretty well.
leojg 11y ago
guys, come on, its gonna be fun as hell

I am not an US citizen, but I have more faith in him as a president than any other of the candidates, after all you should trust him he is, sort of, an engineer

by leojg 11y ago

I am not an US citizen, but I have more faith in him as a president than any other of the candidates, after all you should trust him he is, sort of, an engineer

nanny 11y ago

Are you kidding? So what if he's an engineer? The guy's a lunatic and this is nothing more than some weird publicity stunt. It's a cry for attention, nothing more. This whole race has become a circus.

presty 11y ago
you guys need to take things a little bit less seriously.. leojg was using the "Trust Me, I'm an Engineer" meme http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trust-me-im-an-engineer http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trust-me-im-an-engineer
- leojg 11y ago
  yeah... but it seems that HN users lack of sense of humor :(
  - krapp 11y ago
    Humor is not intellectually stimulating, and has been optimized away in favor of elitist posturing. Memes are for the normals on Reddit. Hacker News is serious business.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      Nah, HN is totally fine with humor. But it has to actually be funny. Unfortunately, for unfunny people, it's easy to confuse this with "no humor allowed."
      - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
        Not quite. I think that HN is such a diverse group, its hard to tell sarcasm from a straight answer. Especially in a text forum. So its darned confusing.
        mikeash 11y ago
        I'd say both. There's lots of sarcasm that gets missed, and also lots of unfunny attempts at humor that are obvious in their nature.
  - leojg 11y ago
    Sure, because this article is the most serious in the world... and all the HN post are extreamly serious... come on dude, re read yourself, you are talking about "normals" what are you, some kind of godlike being?
zobzu 11y ago
id rather have a lunatic engineer than a lunatic politician, but that's just me.
dynomight 11y ago
"This whole race has become a circus" >has become

Retra 11y ago

What is it about engineers that make you think they are generally qualified to lead a country?

vetinari 11y ago
The entire politbyro of PRC is made of engineers. Xi Jinping is chemical engineer, for example. They seem to be way more competent running their country than bunch of lawyers ru(i)nning US.
- meddlepal 11y ago
  Yea... the Chinese stock market is doing so great right now.
  - angdis 11y ago
    Stock markets go up and down, so what? Governments can only do so much to keep the economy positive. The real problem with China is repression of its citizens and the complete lack of protections and "safety nets" that is taken for granted in civilized western nations. I don't think that has anything to do with leadership being engineer-heavy rather than lawyer-heavy.
  - t2015_08_25 11y ago
    Yup and their human rights and pollution records are excellent, too :) </s> People forget that civic leadership is a requirement for running a country. Just like managers have to "herd cats," politicians have to herd a more diverse group of roles. I'm not trying to garnish sympathy for politicians, I just want to point out that their requirements are not easily translated from any one field, such as real estate, engineering, business leadership, chemistry, etc. Also, their decisions are constantly compromises. Most people cringe when they have to compromise b/t two things such as cost and quality. Politicians typically compromise b/t about ten things like: legacy, human rights, quality of life, cost, reputation, longevity, state of relationships at local, county, state, region, national and international level, etc, etc. They even have to compromise against themselves in order to stay in power. It would make me completely ill to have nearly all of my decisions play out with a near 10% net efficiency :)

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Engineers think we need an Engineer for leader. Businessmen, a businessman. Soldiers want a soldier king. And so on. What do we really need for a leader? A leader. A consensus builder. A decision maker. And inspiration.

jessaustin 11y ago
Eventually we'll realize, we don't need leaders. At least, not leaders who stand above us and make decisions. Inspiration is fine.
rwmj 11y ago
Except in times of war (and even then), you really want someone who gets out of the way. Things run themselves pretty well.

leojg 11y ago

guys, come on, its gonna be fun as hell