
Boeing's 737 Max Software Outsourced to $9-an-Hour Engineers - ycnews
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeings-737-max-software-outsourced-204657048.html
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salawat
More discussion here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20309052](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20309052)

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nell
People in the industry would instantly recognize that there are many layers to
a big system and some are less critical than others. There is no proof here
that the contractor touched any critical flight system software.

But this is written for a general audience who are unable to tell the
difference. The piece rides on the narrative that Boeing was careless, which
may be true overall wrt 737MAX, but not necessarily in the aspect the article
is premised on. Hence, clickbait.

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nutjob2
These planes run over $50 million each, and even a misprogrammed galley oven
could potentially bring down a plane in flight. Given that, would you be happy
that they outsourced any engineering in this way?

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logjammin
Didn't SwissAir 111 crash because of faulty in-flight entertainment systems? I
think there's precedent for lower-rung stuff having unexpected and outsized
impact in aviation.

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dentemple
The real kicker is that the software worked exactly as intended.

It wasn't the programmers' fault that the planes went down. It was the specs
they were given that were bad.

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olah_1
Anyone that has ever worked with outsourced developers knows the truth of
this.

If you give them a spec or requirements, they will do _exactly_ what that
thing says. Even including the typos or grammatical errors.

I don’t blame them. They have no incentive to care beyond this type of
business transaction.

But applying this model to anything other than vaporware is terrifying.

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bonestamp2
> They have no incentive to care beyond this type of business transaction.

I don't know if it's even a matter of incentive. Even when we hire local
developers from some particular cultures, it's not part of their culture to
question "authority" or be independent thinkers. So, they too will do exactly
what we ask because they trust us as the experts or think that we'll be
displeased if they don't do precisely what we asked.

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fma
"Rabin, the former software engineer, recalled one manager saying at an all-
hands meeting that Boeing didn’t need senior engineers because its products
were mature."

Doesn't exactly make me confident in flying in their planes...

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wizzard
I remember reading an article about the MAX fiasco that stated something about
how all software engineers working in aeronautics could be assumed to be
senior and extremely capable. I wondered how they could be so sure, with
companies like IBM kicking out seniors (in both senses of the term) to lower
costs, the rise of “code schools,” and the lure of outsourcing. Not surprised
to read this at all.

At least in other industries cost-cutting just kills the business instead of
killing actual human beings.

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partha42
This is pure scapegoating. The "9$/hour" engineers wrote code exactly like
Boeing asked them to. In other words, it's a mistake in the requirements given
by Boeing designers and not the cheap engineers who wrote the code.

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yash_8141
To all those who are criticizing 9 dollar per hour is actually top tier salary
in india. It translates to 18 lakh rupees per year which adjusting according
to PPP with respect to Cali or ny around 100k dollars.This is honestly
confirmation bias for Americans who think outsourcing is bad . Which kind of
is but don't think in this case.

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rbmktechik
You know the old saying: I would never fly in a plane designed with software
using floating point.

I think it needs an updating: I would never fly in a plane with software
written by $9/hour coders.

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gugagore
Is that a saying? Lots of critical systems use floating point numbers.

