exactly.

actually almost everything he predicted barred the washing machines is happening already. That is a pity because I would prefer the washing machine he described instead of sad reality.

typical nerd - no f. clue how others do things, do you? That people show gratitude for helping out even if this did not cost you anything normal, it is also normal that this gratitude is sometimes accepted and sometimes not (but offer appreciated anyway). This typicaly but not always involves money changing hands and more often in social circles that are better off than those on level of poverty. There many different ways humans interract. Some of them make no sense to a geek brain because they have 'no logic' or are 'inefficient'. It is when you extend context of your ruleset for social behaviours when it all starts making 'sense'. The given example does not even fit anywhere near the context of the matter - we are not talking about an odd journey where costs are split nor we are talking about about commuters who do it on regular bases or some such. This is a normal business practice which happen to be not in compliance with valid legal rules.

I think you must be old to say such things. Young people frequenting /. (of which there is a majority here) tend to fight till the last click to prove superiority of their devices.

a house every 10y??? You are surely mad or are houses in Murica of this bad quality? I suppose this would mean the house was built by a huge corporation as small company would go bust in no time.

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.