5/ The result is that the responsibility for cost reduction is passed to relevant technical experts under enormous political pressure
-
-
Replying to @vgr
6/ So not surprising that the technical experts react by cutting things that are not in the spotlight of politicized debate over functions
1 reply 2 retweets 6 likes -
Replying to @vgr
7/ Chief among these are safety and insurance functions in engineering design and operations. The "what-if" infrastructure.
1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes -
Replying to @vgr
8/ Non-technologists sometimes *think* they are covering safety/insurance aspects, but they are usually involved in safety/insurance theater
1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes -
Replying to @vgr
9/ Exhibit A is of course the TSA security theater. I am sure we're safer since 9/11, but almost all safety increase is in invisible places.
1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @vgr
10/ Not only does "lean" translate to "increase risk", incentives are stacked to increase risk for people who have least ability to complain
2 replies 6 retweets 12 likes -
Replying to @vgr
11/ In general, if there is a need to cut costs by X, 10% will come from function degradation, 90% from increasing risk via "leaning"
1 reply 3 retweets 8 likes -
Replying to @vgr
12/ Of that 90%, almost all will happen in parts of ops that will affect the vulnerable more. Not today, but at some unknown future date
1 reply 2 retweets 5 likes -
Replying to @vgr
13/ Complex infrastructure inherently involves moral hazard because of this: experts manage risk distributions via cost cuts over time
1 reply 2 retweets 8 likes -
Replying to @vgr
14/ In this, impacted parties are not blameless. They usually knowingly overallocate resources to function X over insurance of function X
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
15/ How do you tell real efficiency increases from fragility-for-cost tradeoffs? Follow the information. Real thing embodies new knowledge
-
-
Replying to @vgr
16/ When you can't find any new information embodied by an evolved system, but it's cheaper, then it is more fragile
2 replies 1 retweet 5 likes -
Replying to @vgr
17/ If you find a new information embodied locally, then there is some real efficiency increase and some risk moved elsewhere
2 replies 1 retweet 4 likes - 7 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.