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Just imagine if no one had ever lifted a finger to fix any of the bugs. We only talk about it being a scam because everyone collectively did such a great job mi

Just imagine if no one had ever lifted a finger to fix any of the bugs. We only talk about it being a scam because everyone collectively did such a great job mitigating it in time.

arethuza 7y ago
There is a certain class of work in the IT/software world that is utterly thankless - nothing goes wrong and people wonder what they pay you for, something goes wrong and the very same questions get asked.
- protomyth 7y ago
  All of your successes will occur in the dark of night and all of your failures will occur in the bright light of day. Welcome to most enterprise IT shops.
- Psyladine 7y ago
  It's not IT/software, it's in every field, it's called shitwork, that you don't get credit for, but catch hell if it isn't. e.g. "what do we pay all these janitors for when this place looks spotless?"
  - StaticRedux 7y ago
    I don't think that's true. I've never heard that about any other industry. Certainly not about janitorial work. Doctors curing a patient, lawyers winning a big case, secretaries keeping the schedule up to date, teachers with kids who pass their tests, truck drivers who deliver on time. all of that is plainly visible. IT is a field in which few people see the results or understand the effort required.
    - Psyladine 7y ago
      it's true of any industry or organizational structure that is considered a cost center. As for your examples, those are all boolean - they either do it successfully or they don't, and if they do, it's what they are paid for, and if they don't, they catch hell. There is nothing intrinsic about IT that differs.
kangnkodos 7y ago
Yes. It's like if you're on a ship and you see an iceberg in the distance. If you shout iceberg, and change the direction just a little, no crisis. Without that small change, big problem. People were talking about Y2K years ahead of time. Lots of changes to code were made. A few little bugs slipped through, but not many, and everyone knew how to fix them. No crisis. Without the many code changes, big problem.
simias 7y ago
This is a tricky situation indeed, and I suspect that many governments face the same conundrum right now with the pandemic. If you take the right measures early on and everything goes well many people in the opposition will say that you just did it for the media circus in order to get attention, wasting people's time and tax money. If you don't take action and things get out of hand then you're blamed for not taking action earlier. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. In the end you end up in this perverse situation where you have to wait long enough for the public to understand what's at stake but not long enough that you won't be able to keep things under control. Quite the tightrope trick.

Just imagine if no one had ever lifted a finger to fix any of the bugs. We only talk about it being a scam because everyone collectively did such a great job mitigating it in time.

arethuza 7y ago

There is a certain class of work in the IT/software world that is utterly thankless - nothing goes wrong and people wonder what they pay you for, something goes wrong and the very same questions get asked.

protomyth 7y ago
All of your successes will occur in the dark of night and all of your failures will occur in the bright light of day. Welcome to most enterprise IT shops.
Psyladine 7y ago
It's not IT/software, it's in every field, it's called shitwork, that you don't get credit for, but catch hell if it isn't. e.g. "what do we pay all these janitors for when this place looks spotless?"
- StaticRedux 7y ago
  I don't think that's true. I've never heard that about any other industry. Certainly not about janitorial work. Doctors curing a patient, lawyers winning a big case, secretaries keeping the schedule up to date, teachers with kids who pass their tests, truck drivers who deliver on time. all of that is plainly visible. IT is a field in which few people see the results or understand the effort required.
  - Psyladine 7y ago
    it's true of any industry or organizational structure that is considered a cost center. As for your examples, those are all boolean - they either do it successfully or they don't, and if they do, it's what they are paid for, and if they don't, they catch hell. There is nothing intrinsic about IT that differs.

kangnkodos 7y ago

Yes. It's like if you're on a ship and you see an iceberg in the distance. If you shout iceberg, and change the direction just a little, no crisis. Without that small change, big problem. People were talking about Y2K years ahead of time. Lots of changes to code were made. A few little bugs slipped through, but not many, and everyone knew how to fix them. No crisis. Without the many code changes, big problem.

simias 7y ago

This is a tricky situation indeed, and I suspect that many governments face the same conundrum right now with the pandemic. If you take the right measures early on and everything goes well many people in the opposition will say that you just did it for the media circus in order to get attention, wasting people's time and tax money. If you don't take action and things get out of hand then you're blamed for not taking action earlier. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. In the end you end up in this perverse situation where you have to wait long enough for the public to understand what's at stake but not long enough that you won't be able to keep things under control. Quite the tightrope trick.