It's not about money for government jobs. It's about the mission and, for many, the previously perceived stability + pension. The good ones, the capable civil servants who made the commitment to the government, do not need to work there but do out of a sense of duty, the interesting work, and commitment to the country.
Offering 2x is like going to Thanksgiving dinner lovingly prepared by a relative and asking at the end how much they want paid. You know, to just square up. It couldn't have been more than $20 a head. The social contract has already been altered, and there will be a non-zero number of government employees looking to the private sector. The capable ones will likely leave on their own in the coming years.
2x is also likely less than the private sector is willing to pay. Try like 4x. It is this way for cyber jobs where we will see massive brain drain. The only way cyber compensation starts to get even is through contracting work, but even then it's less than private sector. Which shows the level of stupid this policy was.
People in these roles are not fungible. That is a big logical error. People who can pass a background check with a PhD in Nuclear engineering aren't being pumped out every few months. They can't go to a web developer boot camp. There is a multi-year lead time and scholarships designed to attract them to the public sector. Same for capable cybersecurity talent (my field).
This is also a warning shot to all those in the government that their jobs, no matter what they are covering, are not safe from the stupidity. And if the BS factor gets too high they will leave.
I'll respond to both comments in just this daughter comment:
> What if they offer 2x the salary to come back? Some are suggesting that is the strategy. I know of one example where this was done but in a private company with lower stakes, so i know the concept at least exists.
With the feds, it's not easy to do this. You can, of course, but it'll take some very large wringing to do so. Think: this will need to be stuck as a rider into some bill that congress passes, and not before that happens. DoE/D pay is very rigid.
Still, it's not like a 2x salary bump will make a difference at all. As I said, these folks can make a lot more than just 2x going into tech or a lot of other private sector jobs.
Now, for the comment I'm responding to:
> It's not about money for government jobs. It's about the mission and, for many, the previously perceived stability + pension.
This X1000. These folks have dedicated their lives to nuclear science and non proliferation.
It's a delicate point, but one that I think needs stating: You know in a Bond/Bourne/Spy movie where a scientist gets recruited by the BBEG and then the hero needs to go save them or take them out? These are those scientists.
I am saying, without any doubt here, that these people would never do such a thing as betray their life's mission and engage in nuclear proliferation. But, if you ever wanted a nuke, these are the people that you'd get to make you one in ~5 years. You'd only need one of them, and they just tried to fire 3000 of them. Again, not a single one of them would ever do so. Clear?
And I don't mean 'theoretically' build a nuke. I mean that these are the people that have the hands on experience with fissile material. They know the weight and smell of these bombs because they are the ones that have held them in their hands and have custody over them. They know the torque specs of the exact grade of steel bolts you have to use. That level of knowledge.
This agency is why RU's nukes are falling apart. They don't have an agency that does what the NNSA does, and it shows.
> People in these roles are not fungible. That is a big logical error. People who can pass a background check with a PhD in Nuclear engineering aren't being pumped out every few months.
Precisely. It takes a long time to educate these people, and then it takes a longer time to have the older greybeards begin to trust them enough to actually get them working on these devices. It takes then even more time to get them to know the little things that aren't written down about how the nukes work. These people, again, are invaluable. And, to be clear, it's not just any background check that they go through. A simple SF86 is just the start. We're talking $250k+ in gov time and resources per person just to get started on the checks.
Look, some of the folks that got fired are going to leave. They're mostly going to Europe and then working and doing the exact same job, just for the EU countries. Mostly in non-proliferation work, and some basic nuclear science. But they are going to be paid a lot more and they're all going to live in Nice or Florence too.
The US is going to have to sweeten the deal a lot more to just get them back. This little move likely sent our nuke programs back at least a decade, if not 30+ years.
I used to sell things (books, video games…) occasionally on Amazon and I would use fulfillment by Amazon. Very good seller rating and only one complaint ever out of 30-40 sales (person failed to read the item description).
Within the past two years, any listing I put up immediately gets flagged and removed by other sellers. It’s a hostile environment for new or infrequent sellers, and existing sellers are using reporting as a barrier to entry.
I’m not sure I follow - if there is no budget to hire a junior dev, or hiring a junior dev would further lose the company money, why would a company do that?
A company can’t give promotions and hire new people if it isn’t a profitable thing to do.
Anecdata also Catholic. NFP and hormone therapy worked but it was a journey. Tried for 2+ years before realizing we had an issue and did NFP to conceive. Lots of other Catholic couples struggling with it go that route as it is a church-approved method.
Tried for 6 years (age 25-31). Finally considered adoption and then got pregnant and lost the first baby in a miscarriage. Had a healthy second baby at 32. Now have a third healthy baby at 34.
I think a lot of factors combine, but will state that we moved an average of once per year until age 30, so subconsciously we probably didn’t feel settled. It’s a very complex topic with too many variables to effectively model. And even when pregnancy occurs miscarriage rates are high.
I’ll note that young couples with kids are much more obvious in church (they make noise) and more likely to be at masses with other families. Young couples without kids often go to the later masses (in cities sometimes 9 PM).
This is an interesting question. If you’re accelerating and take your foot off the gas pedal, the car continues to accelerate until braking is applied. So if you accelerate very quickly to the speed limit, there would be a likely situation where you pass the desired speed unless you get on the brakes, which requires reaction time.
But yeah - I don’t necessarily agree with regulating it away for safety - people need to have personal responsibility. But regulations could make car companies optimize for other variables though (like distance and economy) which could be good.
I have procrastination mode on my account so I needed to create another account to respond.
Re-reading that, I didn’t write very clearly - and thankfully my car doesn’t require braking to stop accelerating indefinitely.
What I meant was, in a combustion engine, there is still some acceleration that occurs as the engine drops from 6-7k RPM down to idle. If you’re running acceleration from 0-60 in 2 seconds, that continued acceleration after you take your foot off the gas and the engine runs down to idle may be another 10 mph. In my experience, acceleration for a combustion engine to hit its best time is usually pedal to the metal and isn’t a smooth stop at that exact top speed (which would require letting off the gas ahead of reaching the top speed so you don’t overshoot).
In context of the parent and regulating speed vs acceleration, my point was that fast acceleration can lead to people overshooting the intended speed / speed limit.
That said, power delivery for electric motors (that would be in the 2-3 second 0-60 range) may not have this ramp-down period, so acceleration would stop immediately (and maybe slow down aggressively with regenerative braking).
> there is still some acceleration that occurs as the engine drops from 6-7k RPM down to idle.
Not in any vehicle I've operated. The moment I pull off the throttle completely, it stops flowing any more than idle speed fuel mixture into the motor. Without that combustion power, it starts to act more like an air compressor almost immediately, causing negative force output. It is taking energy from the crank to try and compress a mixture which, when combusted (if even combustable, most likely not), results in less expansive force than the force it took to compress. This is even more pronounced at high RPMs as that action happens more times every second.
If I let go of the throttle on my motorcycle at 9krpms and like 70mph or whatever it feels like I pressed hard on my rear brake instantly, for all intents and purposes. You'll feel your weight get thrown forwards immediately.
If your car continues to accelerate after you've taken your foot off the gas something is wrong with your car.
If you take your foot off the gas, acceleration should effectively stop, right? F=ma, so with mass held constant and the only forces being friction, a is actually slightly negative. So max speed happens as soon as you release the gas pedal.
I'd love to delegate that part of driving to my car. Automatically maintain speed limit (+5 mph or so, or I'll be tailgated the whole way home) and following distance to the car in front of me. I'll just cover the brake and tap it if I see something wrong in front, at which time it can revert to manual speed control.
Bonus points for maximum performance acceleration without overshoot to the speed limit if I am the first one stopped at a red light when it turns green.
Adaptive cruise control is awesome, but the implementations I've used are unaware of the road's speed limit.
1. Low speeds, the car will accelerate a bit to where it moves at idle speed. (Usually very slow. Like 2-3 MPH.)
2. High speeds: If you lift off the accelerator, the car will slow down. In a manual transmission car, this slowdown is much more pronounced, and can often be used instead of the brakes in non-emergency slow deceleration conditions. In an automatic the slowdown is less, but still there.
To be fair, the car is accelerating, just accelerating in a direction opposite from the current forward movement, resulting in a decrease of the vehicle's current speed.
Probably not what they meant in that comment though.
Because if they pre-installed it, then it was included with the purchase. Once you sell something to someone, you shouldn't get to charge extra money for using it.
You’re young. You could die early, but it’s statistically unlikely. There’s a balance.
With 20k (and if you’re really lucky no debt) and a job that most people on this site have, you are lucky and will be able to do some things others can’t.
I’ll give you one. I spent about $2,000 in 2014 to take my wife to Paris and London (part of the trip was covered by my work, so it was a little less expensive). At the time we had debt, we were young (mid 20’s) and could afford it but the more prudent thing to do would have been to throw that money at debt or invest it. The S&P 500 was roughly 1900 at that time. Today it’s 3900. So invested I would now have $4k in the bank. As someone in my mid-30s, no amount of money can bring me back to my 20s with my wife in her mid 20s, without the responsibility of kids, for a week in Paris and London.
And playing that further out - if that money even 20x’d by the time I’m 80, at that point I’d still give it up to have had the experience with my young wife.
Not sure if that makes sense - but recognizing these tradeoffs while you can and making the decision to take the action is a tricky thing to get right. You can always make more money but you can’t make more time, and you won’t get your youth back again. So have fun. But everything in moderation and recognize that you need to take care of your future self as well (e.g. don’t take two years off around Paris and London and lose your job, etc…)
While I think a US non-profit makes a lot of sense, I would exercise caution with the non-profit board.
The board’s job is to provide oversight and to appoint a director [1]. In this case it would clearly be Thibault, but what happens in a few years when Thibault is ready to go? Does he have say in his replacement? Does the French organization take precedent over the US nonprofit when it comes to leadership and governance?
I say this because Lichess is extremely valuable (even as a non-profit) and that will attract the wrong kind of people. Thibault should take every precaution to make sure he retains control of the org, with good people around him. I’m not sure if there is a non-profit equivalent of retaining voting rights, but I’d want to be sure he retains control until it’s well established as a non-profit and a succession plan is in place.
The wrong board could evaluate his performance (which right now he says he works at his leisure and loves what he does) and say “we need more fundraising and appearances in the US at tournaments” and he could balk / want to focus on the product. They could then look to appoint a US director of the nonprofit and things could get awkward and extremely costly.
It’s incredible what has been built and maintained with a small team. I think they will see extreme diminishing returns after they hit a certain level of governance. Whether that’s going international with a nonprofit status in the US or at another point is beyond my level of expertise.
If someone more knowledgeable that I am can correct what I’ve written above and point out that my concerns are overblown, I’d be happy. I’d also ask that person to volunteer and help Lichess establish a presence in the US.
I'm not sure about the precedence of us vs french law, but possibly the US nonprofit could be set up as dependant on the whims of the french one. French law has a few safeguards in place about Association hijacking, namely the fact that officially changing an association's "statuts" (its written missions) cannot be done unilaterally, and must include named trustees (which could be Thibault) in the vote.
>On May 3rd, 1997 La Costeña of Mountain View, California created the world's largest burrito. The burrito weighed in at 4,456.3 pounds and was measured at 3,578 feet long. It was created at Rengstorff Park in Mountain View.
Also set that day was the world record for largest number of porta-potties filled. ;)
>Despite the hearty appetites of everyone involved, a substantial amount of food was left over. Soon people were filling enormous paper boxes with foot-long lengths destined for the freezer. A couple groups carried six-foot lengths like fire hoses to waiting pickup trucks.
A couple years before you could order burritos with Adobe's Fax enabled PostScript printers, I made PizzaTool use Sun's NeWS based "NeWSPrint" PostScript=>FAX gateway to order pizza from Tony and Alba's, and Sun Microsystems shipped PizzaTool with Solaris Unix SVR4. PizzaTool would actually fax a picture of the pizza with all its toppings, and let you preview it in color on the screen! As long as you're FAXing PostScript, why just use text, why not draw it on the screen in an interactive round spinning window too? (Try doing that in Display PostScript or Vim!)
The Story of Sun Microsystems PizzaTool
How I accidentally ordered my first pizza over the internet.
IIRC, PizzaTool was also available for OpenWindows on SunOS 4.1.1 or so, on `sun4c`.
PizzaTool was probably what inspired me to make the (much lesser) LunchTool, which was an XView UI to a database of lunch places near my employer. It printed snazzy formal invitation signs (using PostScript), for wherever the amorphous lunch group would be going that day.
(Learning PS by displaying on OpenWindows was much easier than huffing from a laser printer, and the Adobe blue and red PS books that Sun bundled were great.)
I heard that the artist who they commissioned to create that sculpture assumed by the name of the road that it would be overlooking the shoreline, and meant it to represent a person leaning out of a window to enjoy the view, and they were dismayed that it was actually overlooking a garbage dump landfill, thus the "Barfing Boy" nickname.
I got part way through Digital Vegan, but admittedly haven’t finished it yet.
It’s been a few weeks since I had to put it down for another book, but here is my main takeaway (so far) - it’s all true, but in my opinion it comes across with very strong views and some extreme options as something to hand non-technical friends. It’s also relatively expensive to obtain in the US.
But thank you for your contribution to the discussion on this topic. I think you’re probably closer to where we should end up, but I don’t see a path to get there.
Offering 2x is like going to Thanksgiving dinner lovingly prepared by a relative and asking at the end how much they want paid. You know, to just square up. It couldn't have been more than $20 a head. The social contract has already been altered, and there will be a non-zero number of government employees looking to the private sector. The capable ones will likely leave on their own in the coming years.
2x is also likely less than the private sector is willing to pay. Try like 4x. It is this way for cyber jobs where we will see massive brain drain. The only way cyber compensation starts to get even is through contracting work, but even then it's less than private sector. Which shows the level of stupid this policy was.
People in these roles are not fungible. That is a big logical error. People who can pass a background check with a PhD in Nuclear engineering aren't being pumped out every few months. They can't go to a web developer boot camp. There is a multi-year lead time and scholarships designed to attract them to the public sector. Same for capable cybersecurity talent (my field).
This is also a warning shot to all those in the government that their jobs, no matter what they are covering, are not safe from the stupidity. And if the BS factor gets too high they will leave.