@mcc
As a developer, I relate to this deeply. And I admire the physicists for actually coming up with new words, however ridiculous, instead of using the same ones over and over (e.g. “port,” “static”).

Still, the completely made-up ridiculous words do make the theories also •sound• completely made-up and ridiculous, even when they aren’t.

@mcc
The terminology sure doesn’t help. “Mesons are composite gauge bosons made of quarks.” “Do right-handed neutrinos exist?” It’s like Dr. Seuss writing tech talk for ST:TNG.

Something I tell my software students a lot when they’re looking for jobs is to remember that a shockingly large number of job descriptions are written by people in HR who have next to zero understanding of the industry, the specific team, or the business need.

All they’ve got to work with is fragments they’ve heard without comprehension, coming to them through a terrible game of corporate telephone.

1/

HR: What technology is your team using?

[several intervening information-destroying communication hops later]

Team: Well, it’s a C# project, but what we really need is…

[back through the lossy hops]

HR: Great! This is a mid-level position, so we’ll say “3-5 years of C# experience.” Now to search the web for some random C# quiz we can use for screening!

Job “requirements” aren’t really requirements at all; they’re corporate Mad Libs.

2/

That’s how you end up with job postings like the one that made the rounds on social media a while back that required “5+ years of Swift experience”…one year after Swift was released.

In most cases, of course, those hard requirements on years and tools knowledge aren’t even what the team is looking for in a candidate. They’re looking for •somebody they want on their team•.

3/

Another anecdote I heard: a team kept getting terribly unqualified candidates when they reached the technical interview phase, and couldn’t understand why. They finally looked up and started their own interview process, and found that HR had walled the position with some random tech screening quiz they found online…that had •the wrong answers•. HR was actively screening out candidates with basic knowledge!

4/

Because they bring me such joy, I will share with you all the software testing videos I share with my Software Design and Development students.

Video 1/3: “We don’t need user testing! We already know our users”

@mcc
I’ve been listening to a fascinating podcast on the political history of the Big Dig in Boston, and one thing that comes through is that the LBJ-ish way of gaining power & influence I assume you’re referencing — coalition-building, compromise, calculation, horse trading — really •was• effective once upon a time. The show presents the Big Dig as a case study of the twilight of that political era, and the transition to our current one.

@mdm @fivetonsflax @mekkaokereke
One of the authors in A Good Time for the Truth writes about how much more difficult it was for them to deal with the racism in Minnesota than in the South. In the south, it was open and explicit and everyone knew where the boundaries were. In Minnesota, it is hidden and white people refuse to admit it even exists, and Black folks are thus running into secret barriers all the time. An invisible maze. That was eye-opening for this white person.