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> “Who is going to trust somebody who got a degree in airline engineering who doesn’t know how to think through a problem without a computer telling them the an
by zecg 10mo ago
> “Who is going to trust somebody who got a degree in airline engineering who doesn’t know how to think through a problem without a computer telling them the answer?”
I think the answer is Boeing
- NickC25 10mo agoIronically enough, they just got a Pentagon contract for 6th generation fighters.
- randycupertino 10mo agoBenefits of moving their HQ to Washington DC for closer proximity to lobbying starting to pay off! Relocating corporate to DC puts their execs within arm's reach of the ones who approve their contracts, oversee it's safety regulations and bail it out when the plane's software causes crashes.
- NickC25 10mo agoSadly and surprisingly, the quality and lifetime costs of the finished product is completely irrelevant here. Yet this product is also the cornerstone of our national defense infrastructure.
- insane_dreamer 10mo agoThat's because Boeing is now a defense contractor that also happens to make commercial aircraft. Which is why being located in DC is important.
- NickC25 10mo agoThey've been a defense contractor for decades...
- naishoya 10mo agoMacDonnell Douglas was primarily a defense contractor with a long record of subpar performance and technical failures in the service of those contracts. At the time of 'merger' with Boeing in 1997, the not-very-exclusively internal joke a was that MD used Boeing's own funds to acquire Boeing; and the years since have proven the truth in this perspective. Boeing went from being an Engineer led company which produced superior equipment, to being a Management led company which produces shareholders, and which has fully reformed to the MD model of Washington centered, defense industry, lowest bid and highest level of 'acceptable failures' in both the defense and commercial product markets. More lives will continue to be lost in a calculus of least cost risk mitigation.
- giancarlostoro 10mo agoWhat bewilders me is that I've read (maybe here on HN) that the issue with some of those planes is a lot of the key people who built the previous generations were moved around to different departments, and I'm just thinking to myself, are you guys going to get the right people in the right spots? This is embarrassing and downright evil if you aren't taking steps to ensure the quality of your aircrafts.
- ceedan 10mo agoIt's a publicly traded company that is enslaved to it's investors, growth, profit and quarterly reporting.
- giancarlostoro 10mo agoThe more time passes the more I hate publicly traded companies. I feel like the stock market rots companies.
- Ekaros 10mo agoAlso the same seems to extend to things when private companies discussed. Nothing is enough you cannot be happy with company making million in post tax profit a year. Next year you must do two million, then 4 and 8 and so on... Even not attempting this is somehow failure for some people...
- giancarlostoro 10mo agoIt feels more skewed for public companies for me. There's definitely "well off" small private companies that have good returns (mom and pop shops) and keep going and making their customers happy for decades, and those aren't an issue. There'll definitely be 'evil' private companies, but something about the stock market ruins companies. You are too dependent on the perception of your company and the markets reaction to it and your decisions. Investors do a lot of knee jerk selling. Meanwhile billionaires swoop in and purchase a chunk of your company at a discount.