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I am normally big on Solidarity with fellow Workers but the humans in this loop really should be automated away, because they knew what they were doing was a mi
by gaius 8y ago
I am normally big on Solidarity with fellow Workers but the humans in this loop really should be automated away, because they knew what they were doing was a mistake and did it anyway, so what value were they adding? In fact they were worse than automation because at least that can be debugged, but there is no fix for the bureaucratic mindset.
Especially since you could tell them to stop and they would say "yes" and then carry on anyway...
Another story from the same company, group A would enter their requirements into system 1, group B would pick up work tickets from system 2. Group A thought that group B were idiots who could never do anything right, and group B thought that group A were idiots who could never make up their minds what they wanted.
But the real problem was group C who maintained systems 1 and 2 and "integrated" them with people in India manually rekeying from one to the other with frequent typos. They thought they were saving money but never considered the cost of delays and re-work in groups A and B...
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago>you could tell them to stop and they would say "yes" and then carry on anyway... // This was discussed/commented on at length a couple of weeks ago. In Indian culture, apparently, the "yes" is like a verbal tick - kinda - and just acknowledges you've spoken without giving any commitment to doing anything (nor indeed indicating any level of understanding).
- sametmax 8y agoNot exactly. If you ask "do you understand ?" and "will you do it?" they will tell you yes as well. It's not a verbal tick. It's just not socially acceptable to say no.
- krzat 8y agoI wonder if western culture has similiar quirks that we don't even realise.
- daxelrod 8y ago“How are you?” “Good” Tons of people have this exchange out of politeness. The person asking “How are you?” doesn’t really want to know details. The person answering is expected to be brief and positive. It’s only among friends that the same question is expected to get an honest and detailed answer.
- Dylan16807 8y agoBrief yes, but nothing about the question suggests they want details. As long as you're not making things too personal you can answer non-positively.
- pimeys 8y agoAs a Finn I typically answer what I really feel at that moment. It creates funny situations, but in general I think if you ask me a question I should give a truthful answer. Why would you ask if you don't want to know...
- tallanvor 8y agoIt's a quirk in English. "How are you?", "How's it going?", etc. are often greetings, not serious questions.
- andai 8y ago“How do you do?” —“How do you do?” tipping of hats ensues
- a1369209993 8y agoI tried this and it worked poorly; people tended to get annoyed at me for answering the stupid question that they asked. Now I just go with "not too bad" in various tones of voice.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- gaius 8y agoI bet you could ask “was that a lie?” and get the answer “yes” too...
- jacobush 8y agoI think the moral of the grand OP story was the automated aspects of that machine only enhanced the human actors tendencies to just follow through.