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> A lot of technologists would, I think, have a much larger impact if they concerned themselves with finding political power instead. The problem is rather tha
by aleph_minus_one 2y ago
> A lot of technologists would, I think, have a much larger impact if they concerned themselves with finding political power instead.
The problem is rather that many great programmers are "insanely bad politicians".
Programming is about working hard against all the resistance to do "the right thing", wheras politics is about "reading the room", not antagonizing important people, making phoney compromises, corrupting yourself, ...
So such programmers will hardly ever get the political power to change anything.
- hotstickyballs 2y agoProgramming can also be about finding the best way to solve for a problem with the lowest amount of work and resistance. How do you know what “the right thing” is before you have an MVP? Hubris, that’s how.
- ajkjk 2y agoWell, "vision" or "wisdom" is what we call that when we're talking about it favorably.
- _spduchamp 2y agoI'd like to shine a light on the electoral processes, everywhere. If there is a problem with power somewhere, you can often find First-Past-The-Post is being used for voting. The mechanisms applied to creating power are often flawed, and will exaggerate problems. Implementing voting systems like Single-Transferable-Vote, can work for forming governance condo-boards, committees, municipal to national governments. These electoral reforms, can limit consolidation of power, open the field to new challengers, and reduce voter apathy. Seeing things through an electoral reform lens, a lot of solutions seem clear. The big challenge is making progress when power doesn't want reform. (eg. Federal electoral reform in Canada)