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Completely agree. We should be aiming to elect doctors and engineers (i.e. people who understand Systems Theory) for political positions, not people who have pr
by beebmam 5y ago
Completely agree. We should be aiming to elect doctors and engineers (i.e. people who understand Systems Theory) for political positions, not people who have prescriptive solutions.
- endisneigh 5y agoThere are plenty of stupid doctors and engineers.
- beebmam 5y agoWell, duh. There's plenty of stupid people of ANY classification. But at least most doctors and engineers have proven that they can understand systems analysis and think critically, or they wouldn't have their licenses. Software engineering is barely regulated/licensed, so I certainly wouldn't apply this to most software engineers.
- endisneigh 5y agoWhat does understanding systems analysis have to do with being a good politician?
- coding123 5y agoWhat would a doctor or engineer do differently?
- sitkack 5y agoMake a decision based on emotion and then retroactively use math to justify that decision.
- idiotsecant 5y agoI am so glad that this response is here. HN in general has this disease, but it's pretty prevalent in STEM fields in general- The "I know how to solve a differential equation so that means I am a rational decision maker" disease. It's important to acknowledge that the more education a person has the more likely they are to reverse-engineer a reason to think something that they want to think, especially when it comes to emotionally charged issues like those that politicians encounter every day. Having technical skills does not automagically make you a good leader or policymaker. It just means you have good technical skills. I would go so far as to say there are probably more people with good technical skills that should not be making policy than the opposite.
- sitkack 5y agoI think having technical people on staff is really important. That the elected leader has a STEM background? Not important. Leaders should be general purpose coordinators of groups that solve problems. Understanding the psychology of all the participants is as important as solving the specific issue. In context, a STEM background is someone who has and can actually engineer or science. Writing some code doesn't qualify. Every human on the planet should be able to design an experiment and do basic statistics. I think the bar we have for our fellow human should be much higher than it currently is. The moniker, that person is an "Every (Hu)Man" , should be a badge of honor.
- dodobirdlord 5y agoApprove construction of market rate housing, presumably.
- cultofmetatron 5y agothats more or less what china does
- SomewhatLikely 5y agoMinus the "we ... elect" part.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoMost Chinese officials aren't engineers or doctors, they might have a degree given to them in something like Chemical engineering, but they've never practiced as an engineer and have the full life training of a politician.
- testfoobar 5y agoEasier to win votes by selling castles in the sky.