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I turned down a job to design monitoring software for pilots and other operators of heavy machinery because of how orwellian it all was. The software was measur

by cut3 2y ago

I turned down a job to design monitoring software for pilots and other operators of heavy machinery because of how orwellian it all was. The software was measuring blink quantity and would penalize drivers for too much blinking so drivers started to wear sunglasses to combat it and management was livid. The human operators were the enemy to this company and it felt horrible even interviewing.

morkalork 2y ago
How's that work for anyone with allergies? (I'm guessing it doesn't). Getting penalized because it's ragweed season or whatever is bullshit of the highest order.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- account42 2y ago
  For safety critical jobs like piloting such "discrimination" mayb be warranted.
meiraleal 2y ago
is blinking too much a indicator os sleepiness? if so that would make sense to track (not penalize).
- bpodgursky 2y ago
  When my 3 year old is tired he starts blinking reeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy sllloooooowwwwwlllly. There's clearly signal here if you use it responsibly.
mdgrech23 2y ago
That is messed up. These dudes have to work so hard to afford scraps they're literally falling asleep at the wheel and gaming the system to get more time behind the wheel so they can get more cash to afford to live in this country. We need to address wage inequality folks.
- anonym29 2y ago
  Wage inequality is not a problem because the gini coefficient does not measure how great or terrible your life is, how financially constrained you are, how much money limits your freedom, etc. Forget about PPP for a moment and just pretend goods cost the same everywhere for the sake of this example. A country where everyone has $0 and makes $1/year has a "perfect" gini coefficient, indicating perfect wealth and income distributions. A country where everyone's a millionaire, but where some people make a million a year and others make a billion a year has a much worse gini coefficient, and yet is still the place you'd rather live in, out of these two examples. The suffering by the people of the former is not mitigated by their high gini coefficient, because their suffering is a result of poverty, not a result of inequality. The celebrations of prosperity by the latter occur in spite of inequality. The takeaway is clear - equality or inequality have a completely non-causal relationship with the quality of life of the people in the region being measured. Further, adviocacy for combatting inequality sounds laudable at face value, but underneath the surface, what does it look like? After all, here in the west we're all the rich oppressors who benefit from economic exploitation of the global south. Accordingly, are we all going to have our assets seized and income garnished to reduce the inequality of the global poor? Remember, the average American public school teacher is in the top decile globally by both income and wealth. The actual problem that you're unhappy about is that average wages have not been keeping up with the rising cost of living over the last 50 years. That's a complex problem with a lot of variables, including quite a few that violate what popular social consesus dictates you are allowed to even think about or question, and is beyond the scope of my response to enumerate. That said, calls to "reduce inequality" aren't it - those are just calls for most of the people on HN to have wages and assets seized involuntarily - at gunpoint and under threat of imprisonment by a SWAT team that will shoot your dog and throw a flashbang grenade in your infant's crib if you resist...
- bluGill 2y ago
  While they work hard, the problem isn't the work. The problem is a few of them after work go out and don't get a full night's sleep. In my office I work with people who after their 8 hours of work go party all night and so are tired the next day - but programming when tired is not potentially fatal unlike operating heavy equipment when tired.

by cut3 2y ago

morkalork 2y ago

How's that work for anyone with allergies? (I'm guessing it doesn't). Getting penalized because it's ragweed season or whatever is bullshit of the highest order.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
account42 2y ago
For safety critical jobs like piloting such "discrimination" mayb be warranted.

meiraleal 2y ago

is blinking too much a indicator os sleepiness? if so that would make sense to track (not penalize).

bpodgursky 2y ago
When my 3 year old is tired he starts blinking reeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy sllloooooowwwwwlllly. There's clearly signal here if you use it responsibly.

mdgrech23 2y ago

That is messed up. These dudes have to work so hard to afford scraps they're literally falling asleep at the wheel and gaming the system to get more time behind the wheel so they can get more cash to afford to live in this country. We need to address wage inequality folks.

anonym29 2y ago
Wage inequality is not a problem because the gini coefficient does not measure how great or terrible your life is, how financially constrained you are, how much money limits your freedom, etc. Forget about PPP for a moment and just pretend goods cost the same everywhere for the sake of this example. A country where everyone has $0 and makes $1/year has a "perfect" gini coefficient, indicating perfect wealth and income distributions. A country where everyone's a millionaire, but where some people make a million a year and others make a billion a year has a much worse gini coefficient, and yet is still the place you'd rather live in, out of these two examples. The suffering by the people of the former is not mitigated by their high gini coefficient, because their suffering is a result of poverty, not a result of inequality. The celebrations of prosperity by the latter occur in spite of inequality. The takeaway is clear - equality or inequality have a completely non-causal relationship with the quality of life of the people in the region being measured. Further, adviocacy for combatting inequality sounds laudable at face value, but underneath the surface, what does it look like? After all, here in the west we're all the rich oppressors who benefit from economic exploitation of the global south. Accordingly, are we all going to have our assets seized and income garnished to reduce the inequality of the global poor? Remember, the average American public school teacher is in the top decile globally by both income and wealth. The actual problem that you're unhappy about is that average wages have not been keeping up with the rising cost of living over the last 50 years. That's a complex problem with a lot of variables, including quite a few that violate what popular social consesus dictates you are allowed to even think about or question, and is beyond the scope of my response to enumerate. That said, calls to "reduce inequality" aren't it - those are just calls for most of the people on HN to have wages and assets seized involuntarily - at gunpoint and under threat of imprisonment by a SWAT team that will shoot your dog and throw a flashbang grenade in your infant's crib if you resist...
bluGill 2y ago
While they work hard, the problem isn't the work. The problem is a few of them after work go out and don't get a full night's sleep. In my office I work with people who after their 8 hours of work go party all night and so are tired the next day - but programming when tired is not potentially fatal unlike operating heavy equipment when tired.