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Imagine if they had read something like Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming. Instead of creating a digital whip for shallow (or even outright harmful) manag

Imagine if they had read something like Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming. Instead of creating a digital whip for shallow (or even outright harmful) managers, they could have developed a QA tool grounded in real, deep thinking—one that respects proven principles of manufacturing. There’s still time to course-correct, and embracing some of the foundational literature on the topic could make the difference.

giantrobot 2y ago
That doesn't sound like disruption at all. Don't you understand? These people went to Stanford (or some other renowned school) so they know better than anyone with experience. The Torment Nexus is the future! /s
ryandrake 2y ago
When anyone argues that Engineering majors shouldn't have to take all those pesky electives and get at least a basic grounding in Ethics and the Humanities, we can point to this startup as a potential consequence.
- o11c 2y ago
  Has any of those classes ever been actually useful for this kind of thing though? The closest classes I took could be summarized as: * Snowden: good or bad? * Poor people should try enjoying rich-people hobbies! * Does it belong in a museum, or should it be returned to the descendants of the people it was taken from? (actually a very interesting class)
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    I fondly remember "Social and Ethical Issues In Computing" which I took in my senior year as an undergrad. Lots of "can we / should we" discussions. Topics included "IP, Patents and Piracy," "Encryption and Privacy," "Robotics, Automation and AI," "White Hat / Black Hat hacking," Phiber Optik and Kevin Mitnick (I'm dating myself here, my class predated the Snowden stuff by almost 20 years). A lot of the curriculum was from High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, a copy of which I still have! Some of it was fluff, like we watched and discussed Ghost In The Shell (LOL), but overall I thought it was a decent current-issues/ethics course, which IMO should have probably been required to graduate with the title "Engineer."
  - gowld 2y ago
    Maybe a humane, ethical mindset can't be created via a 3hours a week certificated lecture?
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  A real shame we don't do both. In addition to a general Teamwork class in the psych department (which did involve some ethics), I took a dedicated class for software ethics. It may have been straightforward for many, but as someone who was only exposed to tech (as a career) in high school it made me realize that code isn't just thos pile of legos to break and rearrange.Even non-critical business can cost lives if they are irresponsible with what they build.

giantrobot 2y ago

That doesn't sound like disruption at all. Don't you understand? These people went to Stanford (or some other renowned school) so they know better than anyone with experience. The Torment Nexus is the future! /s

ryandrake 2y ago

When anyone argues that Engineering majors shouldn't have to take all those pesky electives and get at least a basic grounding in Ethics and the Humanities, we can point to this startup as a potential consequence.

o11c 2y ago
Has any of those classes ever been actually useful for this kind of thing though? The closest classes I took could be summarized as: * Snowden: good or bad? * Poor people should try enjoying rich-people hobbies! * Does it belong in a museum, or should it be returned to the descendants of the people it was taken from? (actually a very interesting class)
- ryandrake 2y ago
  I fondly remember "Social and Ethical Issues In Computing" which I took in my senior year as an undergrad. Lots of "can we / should we" discussions. Topics included "IP, Patents and Piracy," "Encryption and Privacy," "Robotics, Automation and AI," "White Hat / Black Hat hacking," Phiber Optik and Kevin Mitnick (I'm dating myself here, my class predated the Snowden stuff by almost 20 years). A lot of the curriculum was from High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, a copy of which I still have! Some of it was fluff, like we watched and discussed Ghost In The Shell (LOL), but overall I thought it was a decent current-issues/ethics course, which IMO should have probably been required to graduate with the title "Engineer."
- gowld 2y ago
  Maybe a humane, ethical mindset can't be created via a 3hours a week certificated lecture?
johnnyanmac 2y ago
A real shame we don't do both. In addition to a general Teamwork class in the psych department (which did involve some ethics), I took a dedicated class for software ethics. It may have been straightforward for many, but as someone who was only exposed to tech (as a career) in high school it made me realize that code isn't just thos pile of legos to break and rearrange.Even non-critical business can cost lives if they are irresponsible with what they build.