Also Muricans have high moral standards that allowed them to get rid of slavery and injustice at home and applying of forces of reason for well being of their citizens and justice. They also tend to agree that their versions of democracy, human rights, free market and self determination are the only valid ones. We can see how effective the introduction of democracy was in Iraq and other places.

I suppose there are many takes on this from the whole domain of Orwell work: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH is fitting quite nicely but really appropriate is the explanation of the reason why power is sought for - the reason why a party seeks power is power itself. The interesting is something else - history but also common sense tells us that if state is allowed to exist for long enough its success will turn efficiency into efficiency to subdue its subjects. The resulting oppression is unavoidable but can be made quite comfortable for majority. With technological progress it may be that the well off majority is not majority no more, but the not so well off can still be contained with use of well applied force or tranquilizers.

This is not the point you are trying to make but maybe it is, not sure here: most of the cohders I know and have known over the years (this is now more than quarter of century) have no f. clue about construction of robust and reliable software systems and structures. In fact those that do are a few and far between. The difference between those that do and those that do not have a clue is striking and does not involve speed of coding but rather speed of development - in case of really good guys you still have to refactor but there is visible sense in it and you do not have the feeling you got yourself dirty when you are done with it.

they pay with taxes for this privilege. They they are allowed to pay with their lives and livelihoods. To me it looks like they are customers although one must admit not really voluntary customers.

how true - most common customer of such products are civilians who die in conflicts all over this globe.

I take practitioner before theorist every time. 20y of practice thought me that.

I fully agree with you that HR practice is full of BS. Yet as the world is getting smarter very minute we use proxies to select items because that is easier and most of the time the only possible way. The question is thus - can you chose a proxy or set of them that can with high probability tell you whether a person is a good fit for the job. These proxies should involve indicators for technical skill in coding, in design of stuff, test, communication skills, management skills as a bare minimum. This however is uneconomical. You take a crude measure and if that indicates a chance of success and no major risk factors then you give that person a chance. That is actually cheapest way of doing personnel selection. It is cheapest because all other parameters can be gamed or are not measurable in any reasonable way. Often it takes some time in a project to determine if a person fits. So we are stuck with crude methods that you indicated for foreseeable future.

Phones are out of the question. I also gave up on tablet though as this was too cumbersome. If I read I use either a PC or dead tree versions.

I mean for powers that be we are all prols. Why would any prols need any reading?

This is a war - anywhere where Ukraine or Russia are anywhere near the subject whole bunch of trolls from both sides show up and spoil the fun in English that is much worse than mine at the end of the night coding session.

this is Putin's fault then or?

what about people like me who dislike social interaction, you insensitive clod!

I think if used properly such instructions could have been used to induce quite nice SWAT team raid.

smarter does not help if fear campaigns are constantly present in media. In fact if you are able to make media coming back saying 'this terrorist is doing this or that' where 'this or that' may but does not have to be true and/or dangerous to anybody or evil in any sense you get general perception shifting in certain way. No amount of brains will protect you from bias then. The only cure is reasonably believable information which you may have problem getting at or identifying. Fog of war was the old term with assumption that this happens mostly in war situations but the West and particularly US is at war most of the time.

Looking at this from another angle this sort of high tension may be something like societal immune system that has to be ready all the time in case of likely and unavoidable conflict situation. Our history provides enough lessons for societies that love peace so much as to retire their armed forces and police only to find out being a construction material for pile of dead bodies. This said it would be good and is something I would expect not to be lied to all the time. At least in developed and stable societies. I suppose this is not possibly anywhere outside Switzerland. Switzerland is somehow different I guess because of population stability (constant change does not allow for establishing bonds needed to be able to talk unpleasant truths publicly and make decisions effectively), relatively small size and law system that asks for referenda - these are factors not available anywhere else.

I thought a programming language is just a tool to do some job. Some tool are better some other are not so good and some cannot do particular task. Sometimes we work with a tool that is not suited for the job because of bad choice made long time ago by a person long gone and the change to more suitable tool never happens because it costs money and time. Sometimes the tool we have to work with is just good enough. I know none that is perfect for the job and by nature of things doing next project with the same tool may feel uncomfortable in slightly different then it used to. Other than that you still need to know about memory management even if you use a system with GC. But for all purposes the language is just a tool no need for it to be hip or cool. In fact I felt certain coolness about a programming language only once in my life. It was long time ago and when I look at this now then I wonder how silly I was back than.