Comment by amrocha
15 hours ago
Nope, not snark. You can’t believe that you’re better than everyone else and everyone else is incompetent and still function in society.
If you do then you probably have an undiagnosed mental illness.
15 hours ago
Nope, not snark. You can’t believe that you’re better than everyone else and everyone else is incompetent and still function in society.
If you do then you probably have an undiagnosed mental illness.
>You can’t believe that you’re better than everyone else and everyone else is incompetent and still function in society.
Welcome to HN.
This post has been a wake up call. I need to be more careful who I bother responding to.
This reminds me of the time I found out there’s a ton of libertarians here that think drivers licenses are oppression.
The problem is that the system incentivizes incompetence. The mechanics who are paid a skilled wage, take their time, and double check to make sure they are not missing anything show up as big red problems on the beancounters' spreadsheets and get optimized away.
The system can make up for this in other ways like repeatability of processes, redundancy, etc. Which is why commercial aviation is safer than general aviation, and also why I specifically worded my comment as being about the same model of plane - ie if instead of building your own experimental-class kit plane, you hired it out to a liability-limiting company hiring minimum-wage workers to follow the directions. I'm guessing such a thing is illegal per FAA regs, but that kind of proves my point.
For another example, have you experienced the medical system lately? Doctors are generally smart people, but that intelligence is squandered by having their attention smashed into 10 minute chunks, with the entire rest of the system revolving around blame passing - the end result is a lot of smart and well-meaning people ending up grossly incompetent through emergent effects. I would much rather be able to go to a doctor and trust whatever answers they gave me rather than having to do my own independent research and advocacy to drive the process. But that is not how the system we have works.
I don’t even disagree with you about the system incentives. I hate capitalism just as much as you!
But I still trust the institutions around me to keep me safe. Obviously that depends on where you live, I wouldn’t feel the same way if I still lived in Brazil.
Last time I went to a doctor was about 3 years ago. They diagnosed me in 5 minutes, and took another 10 to treat me and write me a prescription. It was great, I loved it.
Sounds like you have this trust issue with lots of different areas of your life, it might be worth reexamining your own perspective. Or maybe you just have to move to somewhere that you do trust.
I'm glad for you that you've had good experiences so far! "Diagnosed me in 5 minutes" doesn't sound like anywhere near a complex medical issue though.
Can you really say it's a "trust issue" when the problem is that I dig into details of situations and repeatedly witness how so-called professionals abjectly drop key issues on the floor?
I certainly keep trying to obtain good results from the system, ie extend trust, but situations routinely run aground.
Latest example: I need a new dishwasher. I should be able to read some reports, spend $1k, and get the problem solved, right? Guess again - first delivery, a dent in the tub from the thing being slammed so hard that its plastic frame deformed and pushed up into the metal tub. Second delivery - loud noise from wash motor. I try to engage with warranty service figuring I'd be fine with them swapping the whole pump assembly. Nope, the guy that comes can't even be assed to do his job either! "Oh that's normal so there is nothing to fix, this is a good model, you should keep it". Third try, wash motor sounds a little better but still has a problem. The third set of delivery guys didn't even take away unit #2 for the exchange (even though I even pushed back when they said someone else was going to come later). I had wanted to simply pay money to solve the problem, but instead I'm left with two noisy dishwashers and a big ole project in my court. (do I keep pushing this exchange button? do I just order a new pump assembly and fix it myself, considering the bonus dishwasher compensation for that? do I say fuck it to the whole brand and rethink the purchase decision?)
I mean sure, I could drop my standards here, check out, and stop caring about the details. The dented tub probably wouldn't leak a decade down the line, the loud motor isn't really that big of a deal if I only run it overnight, and if the motor needs replacing in a few years it's only a $200 repair. But should not giving in to this "best effort" service (after paying $1k) really be considered a "me" problem? It seems more like an economy problem, with me only being exceptional for noticing, having some expertise on how these things should function, and having the willingness to push back.
(although I am thankful that the thing in the front of my mind that I'm frustrated with is an appliance rather than the medical system again)