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Just watch the "Mission Impossible" franchising. They are obviously dramatized stories but I would not be surprised that the world has been very closed to cease

Just watch the "Mission Impossible" franchising. They are obviously dramatized stories but I would not be surprised that the world has been very closed to cease to exist as we know it and the only thing that prevented was that they did their job. Only few people know what they have done, no glory, no prizes, no recognition. What kind of people do that? Heros. Feel free to down vote me. I can only guess but I would not be surprised if your very life was saved. Or even if we just look at money, you may have lost a significant amount of what you have in a scam that was avoided. We do not know what we do not know. But there must be more good than bad in what they do.

jasonwatkinspdx 7y ago
The world is far more Mr. Bean than James Bond.
- ChrisCinelli 7y ago
  I think a James Bond in the past may end up becoming a Mr Bean in the future if we are not careful. I am not naive, there are problems in big organizations. To keep the movies methaphor, the biggest fears I have come from movie like Star Wars in which the empire turns to the dark side. I have no idea what systems are in place to prevent things like this to happen. I hope they are VERY good. My experience as software engineer teaches me that as things become more and more complex in a system the risk of a bug increase. And opacity is a double edge sword. Even if you have a buggy system, you do not say "Let get rid of it" without talking about the alternatives. Other thing to consider is: "full rewrites are generally a bad idea". I would like to open this to constructive suggestions but I am afraid that without an inside view we are just shouting the breeze.
- Forgivenessizer 7y ago
  The NSA hires neither, but mathematicians, programmers, electronics engineers. But the secret lives of computers are more dramatic than any movie!
- maqp 7y ago
  Mad guy speeds across London streets with a highly customized vehicle. Also, tanks. I see no difference.
ta999999171 7y ago
You are the reason the show "24" was rushed through.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dmix 7y ago
There's plenty of memoirs by actual intelligence agents. The world is a lot more boring than films and far more complicated and difficult to pull off serious operations. The serious operations often merely being inside information about other nation states. Not saving the world from bad guys. It's mostly just a long series of super paranoid people chasing each other in circles. And in between plenty of useful information being given to leaders, ie before big events to give them an edge or whatnot. The cold war was the heyday of the outside-the-office spycraft stuff. Today I'm sure it's mostly just countering massive digital campaigns hitting gov agencies, critical infrastructure, and megacorps. Plus the old school agents working within each of those agencies feeding information back to their motherlands.
- ChrisCinelli 7y ago
  And for 2 years of boring paranoia there may be 2 days that save the day. I would expect that people that speak up are mostly dissatisfied and frustrated people. And for opacity, one part of the org will likely not know about what is going on on the other side. A big selection bias. But who knows...
  - _jal 7y ago
    I mean, sure, if you want to believe in superheroes, that's fine. But heroics typically have an opportunity to exist due to extreme events. Those, in turn, mostly happen due to massive screwups or deliberate large destructive events. Occasionally, accidents, but that's not what you're talking about. If you want insight as to why heroic interventions are a sign of failure, talk to your IT department and then scale that up to nation states.
    - galangalalgol 7y ago
      Wow! I have never seen it stated that well. I always said this one team got hero status for saving a contract that was horribly underbid in schedule and budget, so they proceeded to underbid contracts to recreate the success. If we treated heroics as a red flag we would all be better off.
    - 7y ago
EthanHeilman 7y ago
I only downvoted this comment because the poster wrote: >"Feel free to down vote me".

jasonwatkinspdx 7y ago

The world is far more Mr. Bean than James Bond.

ChrisCinelli 7y ago
I think a James Bond in the past may end up becoming a Mr Bean in the future if we are not careful. I am not naive, there are problems in big organizations. To keep the movies methaphor, the biggest fears I have come from movie like Star Wars in which the empire turns to the dark side. I have no idea what systems are in place to prevent things like this to happen. I hope they are VERY good. My experience as software engineer teaches me that as things become more and more complex in a system the risk of a bug increase. And opacity is a double edge sword. Even if you have a buggy system, you do not say "Let get rid of it" without talking about the alternatives. Other thing to consider is: "full rewrites are generally a bad idea". I would like to open this to constructive suggestions but I am afraid that without an inside view we are just shouting the breeze.
Forgivenessizer 7y ago
The NSA hires neither, but mathematicians, programmers, electronics engineers. But the secret lives of computers are more dramatic than any movie!
maqp 7y ago
Mad guy speeds across London streets with a highly customized vehicle. Also, tanks. I see no difference.

ta999999171 7y ago

You are the reason the show "24" was rushed through.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dmix 7y ago

There's plenty of memoirs by actual intelligence agents. The world is a lot more boring than films and far more complicated and difficult to pull off serious operations. The serious operations often merely being inside information about other nation states. Not saving the world from bad guys. It's mostly just a long series of super paranoid people chasing each other in circles. And in between plenty of useful information being given to leaders, ie before big events to give them an edge or whatnot. The cold war was the heyday of the outside-the-office spycraft stuff. Today I'm sure it's mostly just countering massive digital campaigns hitting gov agencies, critical infrastructure, and megacorps. Plus the old school agents working within each of those agencies feeding information back to their motherlands.

ChrisCinelli 7y ago
And for 2 years of boring paranoia there may be 2 days that save the day. I would expect that people that speak up are mostly dissatisfied and frustrated people. And for opacity, one part of the org will likely not know about what is going on on the other side. A big selection bias. But who knows...
- _jal 7y ago
  I mean, sure, if you want to believe in superheroes, that's fine. But heroics typically have an opportunity to exist due to extreme events. Those, in turn, mostly happen due to massive screwups or deliberate large destructive events. Occasionally, accidents, but that's not what you're talking about. If you want insight as to why heroic interventions are a sign of failure, talk to your IT department and then scale that up to nation states.
  - galangalalgol 7y ago
    Wow! I have never seen it stated that well. I always said this one team got hero status for saving a contract that was horribly underbid in schedule and budget, so they proceeded to underbid contracts to recreate the success. If we treated heroics as a red flag we would all be better off.
  - 7y ago

EthanHeilman 7y ago

I only downvoted this comment because the poster wrote: >"Feel free to down vote me".