From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1o6r3691k.fsf@void.com...   
      
   "Jim Wilkins"  writes:   
      
   > "Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1a52o6uwz.fsf@void.com...   
   >   
   > "Jim Wilkins"  writes:   
   > ...   
   > You were forced to overspecify everything... ?   
      
   What I meant was - not well explained - they overspecify the path to any   
   goal.   
      
   My discoveries and successes have been through "feeling my way along" -   
   sensing what Nature is revealing and adapting.  Life is what happens   
   when you are making other plans - have a plan yes but adapt it rapidly   
   with what you find as a result of driving on determinedly on the   
   plan-so-far.   
      
   My perception of a lot of "go nowhere machines" of organisations is to   
   immediately specify everything.  Superficially it sounds right - but if   
   you have any experience of science, you know it fundamentally absolutely   
   doesn't work that way.   
      
   -------------------------------------------   
   In my experience allowing a non-technically-educated supplier to make   
   choices was dangerous, there was a good reason if we wanted something   
   difficult so the job was carefully specified. The US military learned the   
   need for specs when under Ulysses Grant they ordered soap at so much per bar   
   and the supplier made the bars smaller and smaller. Grant could have   
   deservedly suffered the ridicule Gilbert and Sullivan applied to Sir Garnet   
   Wolseley had they lived here.   
      
   I know less outside high tech. I think I see your point, though, that people   
   who aren't really qualified for the challenges of their jobs become very   
   self-defensive and tend to seek the protection of standards or specs to   
   shield them from being called wrong, whether or not those should apply. That   
   happened in the non-technical departments of high tech firms, for instance   
   in benefits, accounting and human relations, they were visibly nervous and   
   defensive talking to us and demonstrated their memorization (if not   
   understanding) of company policy and the complex retirement plan. Even the   
   computer IT people feared us technicians who appeared as if we could have   
   effortlessly taken over their jobs if we didn't mind the downgrade.   
      
   The engineers treated me as a near equal after I solved an engineering math   
   problem in my head for them, 10,000,000 bits sent at 2400 bits per second   
   takes 4,166.67 seconds, which is 1 hour, 9 minutes and 26.67 seconds. That's   
   how long I tied up a satellite channel without finding a single error in the   
   returned data stream. I knew what the real problem was but if I told them   
   they would have dragged me back into cryptography which I was happy to   
   avoid.   
      
   I found a credible unclassified alternative that exonerated where the   
   problem wasn't, with credit for an accomplishment. Similarly I spent the   
   last few days testing the more accessible areas that might contribute to a   
   problem in my truck and only after they passed all tests I unbolted the seat   
   and awkwardly crawled under the dash to reach the likely and actual culprit.   
   At 34 years old any or all could be failing. Once under there I found why   
   the truck was losing power, the throttle cable had stretched. Tomorrow an   
   individual (bracket) may suffer on the milling machine for the good of the   
   whole (truck).   
      
   Rijndael, BTW.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)