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Context- someone on the birdside are blaming #crowdstrike on DEI hiring

Here’s the thing folks. I’ve been coding 32 years. When something like this happens it’s an organizational failure. Yes, some human wrote a bad line. Someone can “git blame” and point to a human and it’s awful. But it’s the testing, the Cl/CD, the A/B testing, the metered rollouts, an oh shit button to roll it back, the code coverage, the static analysis tools, the code reviews, the organizational health, and on and on 1/3

#crowdstrike
in reply to Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮

Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮
Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮
• •
It’s always one line of code but it’s NEVER one person. Implying inclusion policies caused a bug is simplistic, reductive, and racist. Engineering is a team sport. Inclusion makes for good teams. Good engineering practices makes for good software. Engineering practices failed to find a bug multiple times, regardless of the seniority of the human who checked that code in. Solving the larger system thinking SDLC matters more than the null pointer check. 2/3
in reply to Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮

Craig Nicol
Craig Nicol
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even the fact this is a "one line" failure misrepresents the problem. There were expectations in that file that were violated elsewhere - which is why the fix wasn't to that file, it was to the files that had the nulls that line was reading.

Is it an issue with that file, or the expectations that the programmer coded to?

Equally, DEI is a response within certain organisations to address the fact that the expectations of a meritocracy are violated by a number of systemic issues outside those organisations. DEI is only a problem in that we need to validate inputs from an environment hostile to minorities, which violates basic expectations that "the best" will always follow "the true path" to this career.

in reply to Craig Nicol

Cykonot
Cykonot
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this assumes that the organization itself has not been warped by society's biases. Perhaps judging the competence of people with disparate backgrounds is an internal issue, believing the myth of meritocracy included.
Plus, DEI doesn't address class or adversity. We still have legacy admissions in higher ed & unequal opportunities. So, assuming the material differences in resources for training weren't worth more than "merit," some people would appear elite from that.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Cykonot

Cykonot
Cykonot
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@craignicol basically, I'm calling HR incompetent. They use lots of shortcuts based off of their own life experiences, which generally have little to do with the skills they're selecting for. And even when they do have experience from those fields, which may temper the credentialist impulse, people tend to judge people similar to themselves more favorably.
So, i agree with you. I just think dei should be characterized as a way of overcoming org's shortcomings that give rise to bias
@Craig Nicol
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Cykonot

Craig Nicol
Craig Nicol
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@cykonot oh yeah, DEI is a band aid over a myriad of systemic issues. Trying to fix those issues locally is absolutely a step in the right direction, and some of those initiatives will have a bigger impact than just in that organisation, but pretending those initiatives are anything close to resolving the systemic issues in the organisation or wider society is disingenuous at best, and *washing at best.

In other words, DEI is a necessary reaction to the way society is currently structured, and helps to popularise the language to describe that structure, but it's nowhere near sufficient. Anyone who is attacking DEI for the minor dents it's making in the structure is someone who's identity is entwined with the status quo

@Cykonot
in reply to Craig Nicol

Craig Nicol
Craig Nicol
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@cykonot as I said earlier, it's very hard to for colonists to attack the system that provides their identity

https://octodon.social/@craignicol/112819310292685796

Craig Nicol

2024-07-20 14:34:17


To paraphrase, It is difficult to get someone to understand something when their livelihood depends on not understanding it, which is exactly how colonist states, from UK to USA to Israel (and non-English speaking colonisers too) maintain their population.

How do you argue against the actions of your country without whom you have to give up some identity, address your own beliefs and education, and reconcile your vision of yourself with the idea that your lifestyle only exists thanks to the blood of innocent people?

---

It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It – Quote Investigator®
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/?amp=1


It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It

quoteresearch (Quote Investigator®)

@Cykonot
in reply to Craig Nicol

Cykonot
Cykonot
• •

@craignicol an attack on something one identifies with is percieved as an attack on oneself.

Like, even if you aren't the CEO who was hired for having a history of failures like this, you may want to defend them out of credentialed solidarity. Lest your imposter syndrome blossom into something else

@Craig Nicol
in reply to Craig Nicol

Cykonot
Cykonot
• •
@craignicol emphasizing the benefit to the organization, rather than larger social justice, tends to convince a different kind of person
@Craig Nicol
in reply to Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮

Jesper Dr.amsch :v_enby:
Jesper Dr.amsch :v_enby:
• •

The amount of lines I didn't write I'd be responsible for... 😂

If `git blame` was a reliable source of truth, no refactoring should be done.

However, I've weirdly recently seen a lot of this DEI-blaming. Is this the latest right-wing strategy? Think they were saying that for the secret service as well for recent events...

in reply to Jesper Dr.amsch :v_enby:

Craig Nicol
Craig Nicol
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@jesper it's an interesting strategy. When times were less "woke", we had the ILOVEYOU worm amongst other big tech issues, or economies were ruined for years because of bugs/features in the banking system, or we had a lot of dead Kennedy's. But somehow DEI is an evil that is now to blame for rarer, less severe events?
@Jesper Dr.amsch :v_enby:
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