And how does that have anything to do with the parallel at hand?

And I doubt anyone would resist that decision.

They are specialists to the extreme. And that's exactly what I want. I want the BEST I can get. Of course that means that they won't be the best in EVERY field. Or rather, I could never afford someone who is (even I have budget restraints). Even if I could afford that superspecialawesome person, I could not, should not and certainly would not burn him out by simply drowning him in work by assigning everything to him.

Could my analyst write the report? Of course. But not only would he consider it highly annoying because he doesn't like doing it, it would also waste his time that he could spend on the next job. Could my reporter do a security audit? Sure, he has the training. But he could never be as good as my top analyst, he might even miss a thing or two, and despite delivering a certainly flawlessly worded report, it might lack a thing or two.

The system is actually MORE efficient that way, because not only do I get better reports than I did before, I also get them quicker. Even despite the friction losses when the results have to be handed over between analyst and report writer.

More likely than not, yes. I'm by far not the best analyst or report editor, I sure as hell don't have total insight in every single new threat that springs up (one of our people has something like a sixth sense for that... either that or he has some connections with the Russian mob, he has an incredible knack for simply knowing what will be the next big thing in ITSEC) and I'm also certainly not the best guy around if it comes to strategic planning of your IT security.

My "secret power" is my ability to make it possible for them to work uninterrupted and to keep the idiots (i.e. upper management and other pests) away from them, and given my "age" in the company I can rather easily whip up resources when we need them without having to resort to the official channels (where it takes 2 weeks to find the person telling you it is going to take 3 months).

That's what I consider my job as the head of the department. I don't need to breathe down their neck, they know what to do. Better than I do, actually. My job is to distribute the tasks and make sure that they have every resource they need to get their job done.

It's still odd that there is a rather large difference in their salaries...

I'd probably have been asked whether I got that the wrong way 'round, rather.

Pretty much this.

I don't have an "idiot" on my team. I have a handful of people, all with various advantages and disadvantages. My best analyst is horrible at writing reports. But I have someone who is a rather mediocre analyst but can write reports in such a way that it fits like a glove to the intended audience (as you may expect, you write differently for techs and management).

The trick is to put the right person to the right job. Yes, that means you have a bit of overhead where they have to interface, but the end result is PERFECT rather than mediocre.

And it was about idiots. Not the class geek.

Really. Hey, they even call me "boss".

They performed experiments on concentration camp inmates. Don't confuse them with POW camps, they were a VERY different matter.

If you had told someone 25 years ago that criminals in Russia try to steal your ID for profit while in the USA the state tries to invade your privacy to ferret out dissidents...

Another thing that's wrong with the whole system, i.e. that companies that have a de facto monopoly are not held to different standards.

The cynic in me would now point out that I explicitly said civilized world...

I was under the impression that pretty much in all the civilized world (most) cables are buried by now instead of subjecting them to wear and tear out in the open? I mean, even Sweden does it... and they pretty much have to use TNT to dig in that permafrost soil.

What? No mentioning how it can be used to find pedophiles, drug dealers and criminal cartels?

Amateur. Here, allow me to arm you with some arguments.