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> My personal theory is that this is the result of an incompetent management class where no self corrections are happening. This is really a cultural problem t
by AnthonyMouse 2y ago
> My personal theory is that this is the result of an incompetent management class where no self corrections are happening.
This is really a cultural problem that has infected management along with everyone else.
It used to be that you were expected to be able to fix your own car or washing machine, and moreover that one you couldn't fix would be rejected by the customers. It was expected to come with documentation and be made of modular parts you could actually obtain for less than three quarters of the price of the entire machine.
Now everything is a black box you're expected to never open and if it breaks and the manufacturer doesn't deign to fix it you go to the store and buy another one.
The problem with this is that it poisons the well. Paying money to make the problem go away instead of learning how to fix it yourself means that, at scale, you lose the ability to fix it yourself. The knowledge and infrastructure to choose differently decays, so that you have to pay someone else to fix the problem, even if that's not what you would have chosen.
The result is a helplessness that stems from a lack of agency. Once the ability to do something yourself has atrophied, you can no longer even tell whether the person you're having do it for you is doing it well. Which, of course, causes them to not. And in turn to defend the opacity so they can continue to not.
Which brings us back to management. The C suite doesn't actually know how the company works. If something bad happens, they may not even find out about it, or if they do it's through a layer of middle management that has put whatever spin on it necessary to make sure the blame falls on the designated scapegoat. Actually fixing the cause of the problem is intractable because the cause is never identified.
But to fix that you'd need an economy with smaller companies, like a machine with modular parts and documented interfaces, instead of an opaque monolith that can't be cured because it can't be penetrated by understanding.
- beowulfey 2y ago>Paying money to make the problem go away instead of learning how to fix it yourself means that, at scale, you lose the ability to fix it yourself. This is very insightful and, in my mind, a good preview of what is happening with AI right now. We will forget how to use the skills that built these systems in the first place.
- InDubioProRubio 2y agoDont worry mate, AI can teach us if we ever need it again.
- pcthrowaway 2y agoPoe's law in action. I assume this is sarcasm but you never know
- al_borland 2y agoThere was a South Park special about this. I think it was Into the Panderverse as a 2nd plot line. The handy men of the future were like today’s tech bros. They were loaded, because people couldn’t perform basic tasks around the house. When a father was looking to teach his son how to fix the oven, he showed him how to call the handy man.
- akoboldfrying 2y ago> Now everything is a black box you're expected to never open and if it breaks and the manufacturer doesn't deign to fix it you go to the store and buy another one. Do you own a PinePhone? Or do you own a higher-spec, more familiar iPhone or Android that can't be opened up? It's the second one, isn't it. Who made you choose it?
- BOOSTERHIDROGEN 2y agoWhat you are trying to say? Can you be more explicit.
- ourhouse509 2y agoI think they're trying to convey "don't throw stones at glass houses." It sounds like they're trying to make the argument that if you're not practicing what you're preaching then you shouldn't preach. Not saying I agree with the sentiment; but I think that's what they're going for. The reality is that you can have it both ways. I own an iPhone, I know how to build a computer, I buy software, and I know how to code. There is value in understanding how the things you have work, but that doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't buy a high quality product just because you can't take it apart.
- Cheer2171 2y agoThey are trying to make the argument that is parodied in this meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-somewhat https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-som...
- akoboldfrying 2y agoThe comment I responded to implies a lack of availability of repairable devices. I'm trying to make the point that the market does in fact offer them, but that consumer choice is overwhelmingly in favour of locked-down shiny things -- leading to wild proliferation of the latter. This preference is so strong that even those who complain about the lack of repairability choose locked-down-and-shiny over repairability, perhaps without even consciously realising it. It's tiring to read again and again about evil external forces wrecking the world, when the choices are our own, and right in front of our faces.
- InDubioProRubio 2y agoThe management caste was afraid like the devil of holy water that aidealised, socialist society machinery from beyond the iron curtain could produce products better, longer lasting and superior in all aspects. The system people imagined up until the 80s was something similar to atomic heart- and that was what drove systemic competition. It drove quality, it drove investment, it protected the state against subversion and destructive ideologies like liberalism - because the state was the big protector against the thing with even more state. The systemic competition. Capitalism needs a deadly threat to be good.
- wing-_-nuts 2y agolmao what? I don't know of a single consumer product by a truly communist nation that has ever been considered a 'threat' to western companies
- InDubioProRubio 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek) Note: The implementation is out of sight, the vision of what it could be is the actual competitor.
- calvinmorrison 2y ago> > My personal theory is that this is the result of an incompetent management class where no self corrections are happening. > This is really a cultural problem that has infected management along with everyone else. Because every time a natural correction happens, the government bails them out
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]