Comment by agentultra
13 days ago
Mackenzie’s analysis holds a grain of truth and remains too simplistic.
If you work at a company whose notion of value is purely dividends, get out.
The aviation industry didn’t get profitable without regulation. Safety is a big part of the value generated. Spending on safety is not spending money putting more butts in seats and selling more tickets faster. But few people will choose to fly if the risk to their safety is too great.
Software does have similar responsibilities. People hate losing their money, having their private data leaked, having their entire production run screwed up because of a software error. It can cost a business a lot of money. Cutting corners to bring new features to the table doesn’t exactly add to the value the company brings to their customers. You also need to respect their privacy, do what's required to avoid security errors, programming errors, etc.
Update: This article, and Mackenzie's advice, is decent if you're trying to survive at such a company and you can't get out yet.. for reasons. But I would aim your career towards getting out at some point because such a company will never value your work.
The profitability problem in the aviation industry was not a lack of regulation. The profitability problem was simply that there were a lot of countries pouring money into their flag-carrying airlines to enable them to operate at a loss. Since many competitors wanted to operate at a loss, the entire industry operated at a loss.