Ryan never supported SOPA. He came out against it. And this event came after Reddit guys said they should pressure him. And then clueless Reddit guys take credit for successfully pressuring him.
I would hope this HN crowd knows about correlation and causation.
This won't be a popular statement, but I think programmers and engineers in general pat themselves on the back more than they deserve in terms of how logical they are in real life situations.
My point is that many engineers I meet seem to have this attitude that since they're an engineer, it's evidence that they're logical and rational in all aspects of life. A recent case in point is an old friend who told me that he liked the chances of his startup because they were all engineers and so made rational decisions about their business. I threw back at him that there are also tons of engineers I've met who fall in love with their technology and make blind stupid decisions because of it.
More cases in point. Many an engineer crashes and burns if ever promoted to management because he doesn't know how to communicate with people. Any quality manager would be able to resolve conflicts easily, and the required people skills can be justified quite logically. This isn't to say that all engineers are idiotic non-people people. This is saying that there's a selection bias that just because someone was good at something, they must be good at other things.
I see many more cases in situations of crisis, deadlines looming, etc. Bet if you up it to a situation of war, no engineer's brain would be able to survive and continue to think logically; only those who are properly trained for thinking will getting continuously mortared would be able to continue functioning. Still more examples out there in areas like marriage relationships, anything that involves dogma (whether political, religious, or scientific), etc.
My point is not that other people are smarter or more logical about the rest of life than engineers. My point is that engineers are not automatically smarter or more logical about the rest of life than other people.
Joe sixpack, presumably. It might feel more logical to think things out verbally and explicitly, but in non-engineering problems Joe's "burkean conservative" approach of not messing with things he doesn't understand and blindly relying on his built-in social heuristics leads to better outcomes.
>And then clueless Reddit guys take credit for successfully pressuring him.
Phew. I was afraid a thread might go by without an opportunity to make sure I feel better that I'm an HNer and not a redditor.
Paul Ryan's stance on SOPA was unknown until a candidate came along opposing him. Reddit rallied behind him because Zerban was anti-SOPA. I don't think it's crazy to assume that might have some impact on Ryan's newly announced stance.
Ryan never supported SOPA. He came out against it. And this event came after Reddit guys said they should pressure him. And then clueless Reddit guys take credit for successfully pressuring him.
I would hope this HN crowd knows about correlation and causation.