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> Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. This sentence amuses me a bit. Does that also me

> Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. This sentence amuses me a bit. Does that also mean that American Democracy has only been proven to work for up to 245 years? :-)

stormbrew 5y ago
I mean.. yes? Except not even that, really, because the actual modern structure of American democracy is really closer to 100-150 years old (ie. somewhere between the country being broken in half and the 17th amendment introducing elected senators). But in the grand scheme of "humans having governments" it's pretty short either way, honestly pretty proportional to 2 years vs. "humans having megacorporations".
_carbyau_ 5y ago
Well yes. But in that sense, the Democracy has gone through a full lifecycle of elections, candidates starting, candidates retiring etc etc such that all processes for doing it are tested. So you can have confidence that it can handle a lot of things. But not necessarily ALL possible things so it may well be that something comes along and kills it. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100000 years. But for now, it seems pretty stable. OP's point is that 2 years of remote work isn't a test that a company can successfully go through a lifecycle of a team of employees. You know, onboard a grad, get them up to speed, get useful productivity, maintain whatever system/documentation, have them leave AND repeat this until the original members of the team are all gone AND then check that things are still ticking along well. It may be that said companies are "going well" because there is 1 person left holding the fort while a bunch of new starters fumble around with their remote work, not getting up to speed properly. Unlikely maybe? But the point is that 2 years isn't a proper test of such working conditions. EDIT: remove political rub.
30minAdayHN 5y ago
I think so. Systems like remote work, American Democracy are not simple enough to have a scientific proof to provide guarantees. So many factors that might not otherwise have affected the outcomes could affect an outcome in future. So the only fair statements are that remote work has been proven to work for 2 years and american democracy for 200ish years :-) This is quite fascinating
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bigbluedots 5y ago
Depending on your perspective, it may have been working for considerably less time than that

stormbrew 5y ago

I mean.. yes? Except not even that, really, because the actual modern structure of American democracy is really closer to 100-150 years old (ie. somewhere between the country being broken in half and the 17th amendment introducing elected senators). But in the grand scheme of "humans having governments" it's pretty short either way, honestly pretty proportional to 2 years vs. "humans having megacorporations".

_carbyau_ 5y ago

Well yes. But in that sense, the Democracy has gone through a full lifecycle of elections, candidates starting, candidates retiring etc etc such that all processes for doing it are tested. So you can have confidence that it can handle a lot of things. But not necessarily ALL possible things so it may well be that something comes along and kills it. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100000 years. But for now, it seems pretty stable. OP's point is that 2 years of remote work isn't a test that a company can successfully go through a lifecycle of a team of employees. You know, onboard a grad, get them up to speed, get useful productivity, maintain whatever system/documentation, have them leave AND repeat this until the original members of the team are all gone AND then check that things are still ticking along well. It may be that said companies are "going well" because there is 1 person left holding the fort while a bunch of new starters fumble around with their remote work, not getting up to speed properly. Unlikely maybe? But the point is that 2 years isn't a proper test of such working conditions. EDIT: remove political rub.

30minAdayHN 5y ago

I think so. Systems like remote work, American Democracy are not simple enough to have a scientific proof to provide guarantees. So many factors that might not otherwise have affected the outcomes could affect an outcome in future. So the only fair statements are that remote work has been proven to work for 2 years and american democracy for 200ish years :-) This is quite fascinating

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bigbluedots 5y ago

Depending on your perspective, it may have been working for considerably less time than that