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"...you have teams as well as individual employees in companies able to manage the technology, but these tech-savvy people are never high enough in the company'

by percept 12y ago

"...you have teams as well as individual employees in companies able to manage the technology, but these tech-savvy people are never high enough in the company's hierarchy. What happens time and again is that those who have the expertise get overruled by those who don't."

Aldo_MX 12y ago
Even when tech-savvy people is high enough in the company's hierarchy, the business culture usually is to avoid fixing a bug until the bug costs more money than its fix. In my honest opinion this sucks, but oh god, most companies live with a "only money matters" mindset...
- yourad_io 12y ago
  > Even when tech-savvy people is high enough in the company's hierarchy, the business culture usually is to avoid fixing a bug until the bug costs more money than its fix. That's not quite 100% correct. > In my honest opinion this sucks, but oh god, most companies live with a "only money matters" mindset... That's quite 100% incorrect. Good businesses will do risk assessment. If the risks are communicated correctly, the choice of mitigating them for a few man-hours is obvious. There's bad businesses, but I don't think that's most businesses.
  - Aldo_MX 12y ago
    I completely agree with you... in theory. But in my experience, companies tend to look down at issues which affects customers, but don't affect the company directly, the risks are understood perfectly, but the choice almost always is "we will be as negligent with our customers as we can be, no matter if our customers die". An old example which features "no matter if our customers die" is the Ford Pinto[1]. Fortunately, there is not a current example as fatal as the Ford Pinto, but the practice to overlook what affects customers remains in effect. At the end of the day, Risk Assessment is just a way to say "what matters to partners and investors", which is was what I tried to summarize with my previous point of "only <s>money</s> profits matters". [1] http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/pjcihon/LPP%20255/Ford.Pinto.Memo.pdf http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/pjcihon/LPP%20255/Ford.Pinto.Me...
    - sokoloff 12y ago
      The Takata airbag and GM ignition switch issues are comparable, IMO. "If the air bag housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the air bag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin—a potentially disastrous outcome from a supposedly life-saving device."
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
micampe 12y ago
Remember that that's been written by someone who never worked at that kind of job, and then Stallman, who is even further far removed from that environment, making a generalized statement that he wants to apply to all companies and employees.

by percept 12y ago

Aldo_MX 12y ago

Even when tech-savvy people is high enough in the company's hierarchy, the business culture usually is to avoid fixing a bug until the bug costs more money than its fix. In my honest opinion this sucks, but oh god, most companies live with a "only money matters" mindset...

yourad_io 12y ago
> Even when tech-savvy people is high enough in the company's hierarchy, the business culture usually is to avoid fixing a bug until the bug costs more money than its fix. That's not quite 100% correct. > In my honest opinion this sucks, but oh god, most companies live with a "only money matters" mindset... That's quite 100% incorrect. Good businesses will do risk assessment. If the risks are communicated correctly, the choice of mitigating them for a few man-hours is obvious. There's bad businesses, but I don't think that's most businesses.
- Aldo_MX 12y ago
  I completely agree with you... in theory. But in my experience, companies tend to look down at issues which affects customers, but don't affect the company directly, the risks are understood perfectly, but the choice almost always is "we will be as negligent with our customers as we can be, no matter if our customers die". An old example which features "no matter if our customers die" is the Ford Pinto[1]. Fortunately, there is not a current example as fatal as the Ford Pinto, but the practice to overlook what affects customers remains in effect. At the end of the day, Risk Assessment is just a way to say "what matters to partners and investors", which is was what I tried to summarize with my previous point of "only <s>money</s> profits matters". [1] http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/pjcihon/LPP%20255/Ford.Pinto.Memo.pdf http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/pjcihon/LPP%20255/Ford.Pinto.Me...
  - sokoloff 12y ago
    The Takata airbag and GM ignition switch issues are comparable, IMO. "If the air bag housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the air bag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin—a potentially disastrous outcome from a supposedly life-saving device."
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

micampe 12y ago

Remember that that's been written by someone who never worked at that kind of job, and then Stallman, who is even further far removed from that environment, making a generalized statement that he wants to apply to all companies and employees.