Larssen
Member
+99|1857
It's precisely the proliferation of regulation, (managerial) bureaucracy and other hoops you have to pass through which I'm talking about. It's a giant system of interlinked nodes presenting itself as a sort of rigorous quality assurance/necessary multidisciplinary involvement and evaluation, but is really a specifically designed and convoluted paradigm (for lack of a better word) that demands years of effort to be 'initiated' into and then exerts pressures downward to sustain itself and keep all newer entrants in production-focused positions which are necessary to generate actual output.

I've worked in strategic govt. policy for a while. To illustrate: if I wish to inform parliament about X topic I first have to conform to the writing format, specific/idiosyncratic use of language and a strict hierarchical route of managerial approvals that have been instituted as a norm in this professional arena. For the actual content of the letter I'll have to involve at least 20+ colleagues, apart from subject matter related people this includes legal and communication professionals, each of whom are to contribute to or evaluate my writing based on their own area of expertise (which often just ends up being subjective comments of a semantic nature). Then there's some 4 more layers of managerial approval before it lands on the minister's desk, and my route is shorter than most. If you're in bad luck the subject matter is relevant to other state departments/ministries which means you'll have to at least double the number of managerial approval layers (as their minister must agree as well) each of whom can return the letter with more subjective and semantic 'improvements'.

For any new or updated policy plan or document with (inter)national implications, I'll have to involve several committees of involved policy professionals, heads of departments, directors etc, possibly/probably private sector as well, academics, regional and local counterparts and authorities in the writing process + them and all aformentioned managerial layers and legal checks (in committee form) for the final approvals. Several hundreds of people will have commented on the policy content, several times, with maybe 4-5 people in my team actually doing all the editing work, stakeholder management etc. - which ends up being a far more intense affair than the actual research and writing with often minimal real improvements as a result. Our (digital) communication advancements have also only worsened this dynamic rather than improved work efficiency.

As you can imagine it takes a lot of time to first understand this system and then to pass through it, with each set of stakeholders having their own preferred way of working, legal position, needs/wants with respect to your policy area etc. Coordinating a new policy plan can take upwards of 2 years. If you wish to progress in your career, you're then expected to have coordinated several of these sweepingly huge policy initiatives and to have done so like a well-functioning robot that doesn't complain and which delivers. After 4 years maybe you'll be offered the opportunity to apply for a new vacant position 1 rung up the ladder, and be given a modest raise. First though you'll have to pass a couple selection boards, maybe an intelligence test or two. After 6-10 years maybe you'll be offered the opportunity to apply for a 'high potential' class, so that you too can one day be one of the mid-40s unit managers.

And yet the boomer at the top of the totem pole got there in his mid 30s, somehow.

It's all a little kafkaesque.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
In olden times the guilds took care of keeping people down.

Things were simpler in the recent past, my father used to just write stuff and hand it to the minister.
He didn't go to university at all and had Oxbridge double firsts doing his filing.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
"my daddy is special! he's my hero!"

clearly you didn't do a humanities degree. building an argument from anecdote isn't quite the thing.
uziq
Member
+492|3422

Dilbert_X wrote:

Here a road widening project is due to cost $15bn - 150,000 man years of labour on a good salary, 90% of this will be going to consultants, lawyers and middle men.
pretty much the norm in all public works and contracting, it's a gravy train anywhere in the world.

what relation this has to the majority private sector and its management culture is beyond me.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

fantastic

Face Recognition Tech Gets Girl Scout Mom Booted From Rockettes Show — Due to Where She Works
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigatio … r/4004677/
uziq
Member
+492|3422
so musk has announced his intentions to resign as CEO of twitter. his tenure about matches the duration – and quality – of liz truss's spell as PM of the UK. what a disaster.

in that time he effectively turned a $trillion dollar business, his main achievement, into a $400 bn one. and he lost 25% of his personal fortune in the process. twitter itself lost all of its in-house expertise, suffered an advertiser exodus, and lost many high-profile users.

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/18/17/65706761-0-image-a-2_1671383740596.jpg

of course, everyone will point out that musk only intended to be twitter CEO 'temporarily', which will be his PR line to save face, but no one can deny that he didn't exactly expect it to go this way. i think musk was surrounded by sycophants and yes-men and didn't realise how much hard work it would be to helm a social media company in which a diversity of opinion is generally the norm; tesla shareholder meets and spacex parties generally don't go that way, i guess.

for all everyone claiming, 'So what? it's just a social media company that is barely profitable': this little ego experiment and narcissistic meldown has totally tanked the share values of tesla, from which musk derives 80–90% of his estimated wealth. musk liquidated 10,000s of tesla shares to shore-up his twitter bid. the knock-on effects to tesla/spacex are causing enough that even elizabeth warren has written to the board to inquire about it. to say nothing of all the FTC and EU commission investigations and fines coming twitter's way, so long as it continues down musk's path.

the last week has been a clusterfuck, in particular. he claimed that journalists doxed him (they didn't, flight-path info is public free domain as per US court ruling), proceeded to dox someone in return, and then banned a number of high-profile journalists who asked him probing questions about the affair. he then tried to save face by claiming that he banned those journalists temporarily for 'using twitter to promote other social media sites and competitors'. which is in direct contravention of about 3 different competition laws in 2 different jurisdictions. so he u-turned on that too.

his poll was a farce. first the clear and unanimous result (yes, the twitter base want you to resign) was accused of being the work of 'deep state bot networks'. then his sycophants suggested he re-run the poll with only twitter bluetick subscribers allowed to respond. because, of course, running a vote wherein the only people eligible to vote are those signed up to pay the boss $8 a month is a fair and free poll. .

all-in-all we got a very good and intimate look inside the mentality and management style of the supposed 'billionaire genius elite': compulsive, erratic, way out of his depth, and only as good as the senior team(s) around him who manage and damage-control his manbaby bullshit. let nobody ever again suggest this guy is some maverick genius business guru who is going to save humanity. and we got a clear idea of what these billionaires think an 'ideal', open 'public forum' is really about: ruling by personal fiat and whim, amplifying those who agree with you, exercising your own personal axes to grind and spreading malicious conspiracies and alt-right rumours, and letting people who pay the biggest sums get preferential treatment. wow! a leader of men!

if musk didn't make this call now, he was a few weeks away from getting margin-called on his tesla stocks and losing everything. the guy literally burned $44 billion dollars of other people's money, his own fortune, and near-universal good faith ... because people on a microblogging site were saying mean things about him in 2021. to resurrect an ancient phrase: EPIC FAIL.

Last edited by uziq (2022-12-20 22:28:28)

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

his poll was a farce. first the clear and unanimous result (yes, the twitter base want you to resign) was accused of being the work of 'deep state bot networks'. then his sycophants suggested he re-run the poll with only twitter bluetick subscribers allowed to respond. because, of course, running a vote wherein the only people eligible to vote are those signed up to pay the boss $8 a month is a fair and free poll. .
To be fair, having to pay an $8 or $24 subscription just to vote sounds like a Republican's wet dream.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

uziq wrote:

his poll was a farce. first the clear and unanimous result
I don't think you know what unanimous means.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
i meant to write unambiguous. yes i know what unanimous means.

it would be pretty hard for a poll with tens of millions of respondents to be ‘unanimous’.

but well done: the only response you’ve got to the main news story, that your proposed engineering STEM god brand of leadership turns out to have feet of clay, is pedantry over slippages of phrase and typos.

Last edited by uziq (2022-12-21 00:43:30)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Its all part of the grand plan to lull everyone into a false sense of something.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Cybargs
Moderated
+2,285|6686

Dilbert_X wrote:

Its all part of the grand plan to lull everyone into a false sense of something.
he's already trying to flog the shares and wants out. tesla shareholders are pissed, his chairwoman admitted in delaware court she has no idea how much effort hes putting in to run tesla, in a case about his outrageous compensation.
https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

Dilbert_X wrote:

Its all part of the grand plan
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
the grand plan to lose one of the biggest fortunes in human history and face a board revolt at your flagship company?
uziq
Member
+492|3422
https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/160 … aTf8Tk28_Q

cringe. he really has been in a position for so long now without anyone asking actually meaningful follow-up or clarifying questions.

he’s the coddled mummy’s boy who has deluded himself into thinking he really does know everything about everything, because those closest to him never correct or challenge him. spouting off on areas way beyond his expertise and minimising the idea that there could even be expertise and experts beyond his purview.

remind you of anyone?
uziq
Member
+492|3422
https://twitter.com/calebgamman/status/ … vVmz1V1EFw

i am really going to miss this sort of insight into senior-level mismanagement. it’s like an armando ianucci sitcom. the thick of it.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Bleh.

Vandals Have Destroyed 30,000-Year-Old Australian Cave Art by Carving Spooky Graffiti Into the Rock
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vanda … rt-2234073

The ancient rock art is now obscured by graffiti, with messages like “don’t look now, but this is a death cave” scrawled across the age-old markings.

“The vandals caused a huge amount of damage. The art is not recoverable,” Keryn Walshe, an archaeologist of ancient Aboriginal sites, told the Guardian. “The surface of the cave is very soft. It is not possible to remove the graffiti without destroying the art underneath. It’s a massive, tragic loss to have it defaced to this degree.”
via bbc: Ancient South Australia cave art destroyed by vandals
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64049711
Cybargs
Moderated
+2,285|6686

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Bleh.

Vandals Have Destroyed 30,000-Year-Old Australian Cave Art by Carving Spooky Graffiti Into the Rock
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vanda … rt-2234073

The ancient rock art is now obscured by graffiti, with messages like “don’t look now, but this is a death cave” scrawled across the age-old markings.

“The vandals caused a huge amount of damage. The art is not recoverable,” Keryn Walshe, an archaeologist of ancient Aboriginal sites, told the Guardian. “The surface of the cave is very soft. It is not possible to remove the graffiti without destroying the art underneath. It’s a massive, tragic loss to have it defaced to this degree.”
via bbc: Ancient South Australia cave art destroyed by vandals
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64049711
sigh dipshits at it again. at least this time its not a mining company that blew up one of the oldest cave art in human existence.
https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

wth does it even mean, "don't look now, but this is a death cave," pure gibberish.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
Tesla stock dropped 10% today. Down almost 70% YTD.

Down 70% so far.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

Still up 4x since start of pandemic. That should be the benchmark. I'm kicking myself that I didn't short it. I'm probably going to short it down to $90
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
Considering almost all the other tech stocks deflated back to their pre-covid levels, Tesla is kind of special. I suspect a lot of the stock is tied up in the hands of people who personally identify with Musk and what he represents (???). Google and Amazon don't have cults which is surprising since they make a ton of great products and services.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Cybargs
Moderated
+2,285|6686

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Tesla stock dropped 10% today. Down almost 70% YTD.

Down 70% so far.
They don’t like Elon not showing up to the office
https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Bleh.

Vandals Have Destroyed 30,000-Year-Old Australian Cave Art by Carving Spooky Graffiti Into the Rock
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vanda … rt-2234073

The ancient rock art is now obscured by graffiti, with messages like “don’t look now, but this is a death cave” scrawled across the age-old markings.

“The vandals caused a huge amount of damage. The art is not recoverable,” Keryn Walshe, an archaeologist of ancient Aboriginal sites, told the Guardian. “The surface of the cave is very soft. It is not possible to remove the graffiti without destroying the art underneath. It’s a massive, tragic loss to have it defaced to this degree.”
via bbc: Ancient South Australia cave art destroyed by vandals
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64049711

uziq wrote:

Graffiti is good, people have been doing graffiti since Roman times, its how people express themselves, its best to wipe away the past and replace it with new. Destruction is good. Get with the zeitgeist!
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
when have i ever said graffiti is 'good'? i don't even like graffiti nor am i interested in it.

you being a paleo-conservative who thinks that property damage is as bad as taking human life is a different matter entirely.

"BLM are violent thugs! they spray things on a wall!"
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

uziq wrote:

when have i ever said graffiti is 'good'? i don't even like graffiti nor am i interested in it.
Pretty sure you said graffiti and vandalism were good when BLM were doing it, and it harks back to Roman times so great it is.

Do I really have to find the posts?
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

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