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"We don't want to use common sense, we just want to have rules that anyone can blindly enforce."
by smackfu 13y ago
"We don't want to use common sense, we just want to have rules that anyone can blindly enforce."
- brazzy 13y agoThe problem with leaving things to common sense is that different people's common sense will lead to different decisions in many situations - it can lead to questionable forms of selective enforcement. "Other speakers' wives were allowed to attend their talks, but my homosexual life parter was escored out by security!" "I paid $$$ to attend but this speaker brought 5 friends who got in for free!" If you depend on common sense, you either have to make sure to hire only people who don't misjudge, ever, or have to deal with embarrassing mistakes.
- snom380 13y agoMisjudgements will happen no matter what, and it's not like it's an either-or proposition. It's perfectly possible to have a set of guidelines that can be used together with common sense, but no matter what people should have the authority to _fix the problem_. The root problem in this instance wasn't using common sense to allow someone into the conference, it was a complete failure to find a satisfactory solution to the problem. Had the wife been told to wait in the meeting room, that would suck but would probably not have ended up causing a shitstorm.
- jlgreco 13y agoAnd they are avoiding "embarrassing mistakes" with rigid enforcement how?
- smackfu 13y ago> it can lead to questionable forms of selective enforcement. The alternative tends to lead to questionable enforcement, and it's debatable which is better.
- brazzy 13y agoAbsolutely - I just wanted to point out that "common sense" is not a magic bullet and rigid rules are often installed for good reasons.