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In principle, one tends to agree with the sentence about experts overruling the mass but in fact we don't accept this behaviour in economy or any other aspect o

In principle, one tends to agree with the sentence about experts overruling the mass but in fact we don't accept this behaviour in economy or any other aspect of our lives. So, maybe it's the right to do it but I'd love to have more data (and confidence) on that. Also, it's not only about technical decisions but also regarding who decides what feature should be implemented next

dudul 11y ago
What do you mean "we don't accept this behaviour in economy"? I believe we very much let experts handle the economy. Or are you talking about the fact that it is a widely criticize state of affair?
- oneJob 11y ago
  The Fed Chief is put there by elected officials. Same for Treasury. Same for most of the regulatory agencies. The economy is very much handled by fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policy, which is handled by individuals that are handled by elected officials. Seriously, the amount of basic misunderstanding of all things not programming related here on HN is starting to get to me. I can't read these threads without being compelled to correct such obvious errors. If you don't know what you're talking about, at least phrase it in a way so that it comes across as an opinion, or better yet, research before you type. It's ruining the quality of these threads.
  - rc4algorithm 11y ago
    It's not like de Raadt or Torvalds got arbitrarily dropped into their positions. People effectively chose them by investing usership and development effort into their projects.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
> in fact we don't accept this behaviour in economy or any other aspect of our lives I think it's simply because this approach is more prone to abuse. A good dictator leaves democracy in the dust in terms of efficiency, but converesly a bad dictator can make everything go to shit at moment's notice. In economy/politics, it's a matter of life and death. In open-source software, the risks of dictatorship don't matter - someone can always fork the project off and do it better, but even if not, no one is starving or dying because of it.

dudul 11y ago

What do you mean "we don't accept this behaviour in economy"? I believe we very much let experts handle the economy. Or are you talking about the fact that it is a widely criticize state of affair?

oneJob 11y ago
The Fed Chief is put there by elected officials. Same for Treasury. Same for most of the regulatory agencies. The economy is very much handled by fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policy, which is handled by individuals that are handled by elected officials. Seriously, the amount of basic misunderstanding of all things not programming related here on HN is starting to get to me. I can't read these threads without being compelled to correct such obvious errors. If you don't know what you're talking about, at least phrase it in a way so that it comes across as an opinion, or better yet, research before you type. It's ruining the quality of these threads.
- rc4algorithm 11y ago
  It's not like de Raadt or Torvalds got arbitrarily dropped into their positions. People effectively chose them by investing usership and development effort into their projects.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

> in fact we don't accept this behaviour in economy or any other aspect of our lives I think it's simply because this approach is more prone to abuse. A good dictator leaves democracy in the dust in terms of efficiency, but converesly a bad dictator can make everything go to shit at moment's notice. In economy/politics, it's a matter of life and death. In open-source software, the risks of dictatorship don't matter - someone can always fork the project off and do it better, but even if not, no one is starving or dying because of it.