Aaron Snelund on bureaucratic obstructionism:
"'Reports were filed and forgotten.'" (p. 469)
- among other things.
When I was at College, myself and a few other students were in some kind of Equal Opportunities working group - the details have receded - with tutorial support from a member of the teaching staff. One of my fellow students submitted a report in which, addressing our tutor, he wrote something like, "I do not think that you are concerned about this issue and that you are just paying lip service to it." Apparently, when the tutor next saw the student, he just smiled and thanked him for the report. My guess is that the tutor, on seeing that he had received a report of a couple of paragraphs signed and dated by that student, merely countersigned, dated and filed the report without reading it. Job done. Paperwork completed. I like to think that, decades later, when the College was closed and files were being cleared out, someone read that report and received a surprise. How many unread reports are there in files around the world?
When I started a new job in late 1989, everything was still on paper. There was one computer in the office that no one did anything with yet. We passed hand-written reports to a typist. When I left in 2012, there was no typist, everyone worked on his or her individual PC and I was using a lap top for leisure purposes at home. In those early days, a work colleague told me that he might get on the Internet that evening and was there anything that I would like him to look up? I said, "Poul Anderson." Next day, he reported back that there were three whole sites about Anderson.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember Aaron Snelund's comments about bureaucracies! But it's important to remember, however bad a man he was, Snelund was a very shrewd, able, and hard working when he chose to be. His comments about how civil services can be obstructive with those he made about how necessary they also were, carrying out functions best done by bureaucracies. I even quoted this part of THE REBEL WORLDS in a paper I wrote while in college.
Ad astra! Sean
"new job in late 1989, everything was still on paper."
Which is about when another new thing was coming in that I encountered on a job.
I was working at a company that did airborne geophysical surveys, ie: flying about carrying such things as magnetometers to get clues about what is underground. Of course you need to know where the plane is when any given data point is taken for the data to be of any use. At this time there were just enough GPS satellites in orbit for there to *sometimes* be enough (3 or more) satellites to be in line of sight to give a location for the GPS receiver. So the company put a receiver in the plane to compare with the then current way of locating the plane
With only 3 satellites there are 2 solutions for where you could be, a 4th satellite eliminates the wrong solution and give a check on the accuracy of the clock in the receiver.
So I was looking at the GPS location data, and I would see the location moving along reasonably, then a satellite could go below the horizon and with only 2 satellites a no solution available sign was given. Then when a 3rd satellite came above the horizon, sometime I would see reasonable data, and sometimes I would see that the GPS is telling me the plane is 1000 km from its previous location and 100 km *underground*. An instruction in the program to look for the *other* solution in such cases would be a good idea. ;)
Also related to your comment. In the 1970s while I was in high school, my father recommended I take the typing course offered. He could see computers being used in his scientific work and realized typing would be useful for me in using computers.
BTW that above comment was mine
As you get older, you generally get a more realistic sense of what's possible. Young people don't have that.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I've experienced that personally! I get esp. exasperated at the blithely careless way too many young people ride their bikes and skateboards even in heavily congested traffic. Too many of them get hurt or even killed when they have unfortunate encounters with cars. The old rules about stopping, getting off bikes, and waiting before walking their bikes across the street seem to be forgotten these days.
Ad astra! Sean
"The old rules about stopping, getting off bikes, and waiting before walking their bikes across the street"
As someone who bikes a lot, I consider *riding* across the street *after* checking for oncoming cars, to be sensible. Walking the bike across will take longer. If any car is stopped to let me across it will delay that car more.
Kaor, Jim!
I disagree, but I will clarify. At intersections of heavily trafficked streets we were supposed to wait till traffic stopped for a red light before walking bikes across. Sure, if there is no traffic or cars are a good safe distance away, then ride the bike across the street. But that is too often not the case here.
I've become very jaundiced about bikers and skateboarders!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment