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Defense companies are documentation-driven and procedure-driven ("stodgy") because they are government contractors, and there have actually always been a lot of
by whatshisface 2y ago
Defense companies are documentation-driven and procedure-driven ("stodgy") because they are government contractors, and there have actually always been a lot of them in SV. There is also a precedent in the tech company idea as a sales and marketing tool aimed at the government - in Theranos of all examples.
- Terr_ 2y ago> they are government contractors It's not just a kind of subculture though, there are practical reasons: "Defense" products have often meant large batches of durable complicated equipment (e.g. tanks, planes) where your clients plan to have them ready for service for the next X decades and really do require their own copies of good repair-manuals that a non-employee can use, as well as some confidence that the supply-chain is both secure now and can also continue to exist for those X decades. Even if all you're doing is providing the software for the Big Mech Suit, you can't dodge those requirements since it's part of the same set of product-needs. This is a stark contrast to, say, an "Uber for Cats on the Blockchain with AI" SaaS site the lives on ad-revenue and no end-user support.
- whatshisface 2y agoThey're not so great at providing the repair manuals this century, in fact a lot of the contracts say that only the contractor can repair the equipment. A lot of helicopter trips are made to aircraft carriers as a result.
- AnthonyMouse 2y agoIt's pretty clear that we need not just a law but an actual constitutional amendment requiring them to go back to the old way.