I think that’s a stretch. There are plenty of private firms that do that, but I suspect they are mostly the smaller ones.
I have probably posted it before but perhaps it bears repetition; I have a relative who works as a consultant to the Federal Government on why they are unable to get things done, and he basically has a job for life.
Years ago a friend of my fathers (who also gave me my first job…) was a management consultant who was called into a firm in the City to look over their operations with a view to making them more efficient. He eventually reported to the Board that one quarter of the employees did more or less all the work, and suggested that they and a few others be retained on double salary and the rest be fired.
The Board, of course, thought paying better was a stupid idea so they made the staff changes but gave only a small salary rise. Soon after they ceased trading as all the retained staff found better paid jobs.
I’m going to go completely out on a limb and speculate that this is typical of organisations, including the NSA.
4 Likes
Yeah, Assange is a real figurehead for people who’ve stayed in country with the intent to fight political battles despite the cost.
- Fuck that guy b/c he’s an asshole.
- Interesting that Wikileaks doesn’t seem all that concerned with the American political scene now that the election is over.
- How 'bout those rape allegations?
- Fuck that guy b/c he’s an asshole.
6 Likes
Julian Assange is an asshole, and not a very smart one. I’m sure he felt like he needed to burn Hillary during the election because he’s been so heavily chased and harassed by the US government. They’ve made his life hell so he did his best to help sabotage her presidential run.
I couldn’t do something like that in good conscience knowing it would’ve put Trump in power though. I had no sympathy for Assange but after him helping out Trump’s odds all i can say is fuck that guy. He’s dead to me.
Edit: I must also add that his recent actions in sabotaging the US elections made him far from being impartial or sympathetic, which does not help his case as a whistleblower. His actions compared to Snowden are night and day.
9 Likes
His current benefactors certainly got their money’s worth.
1 Like
I’m sure they did, the irony is that even after all of that he’s potentially made himself less trustworthy even to those that he’s helped out. But again, fuck that guy.
7 Likes
The whole international hunt for Assange on sexual assault charges drives me crazy. Three women giving accounts of sexual assault is plenty enough for me. Then I look around at other people with many accusers and I see Jian Ghomeshi getting acquitted in my home town by a judge who does drive-by smears of women, Bill Cosby needing 30+ accusers and an admission of buying date rape drugs to get charged, and Donald Trump gets elected president with an outstanding court case about that time he raped a 13-year-old girl.
And the message is, if you are raped keep your mouth shut unless the person who raped you is also a political enemy of the government of the United States. I’ve been so annoyed watching people argue whether Assange was a sexual predator or the US has way too much power to influence the criminal proceedings of foreign governments. Good news everybody, it’s the worst of both worlds!
14 Likes
I do believe that Assange is most likely guilty. He strikes me as a slimy, scummy guy. But alas one has to say “allegedly” since it hasn’t been proved if he’s guilty or not so there’s that.
But as you said, it is clear that because he’s a political target so of course the justice system seems suddenly interested in pursuing all avenues to bring him in. Nothing strange going on here. Interesting how sexual assault/rape is just an excuse to crucify someone for something else, almost like rape isn’t considered that big of a deal by men in power.
8 Likes
This imbalance is so typical that it has a name, the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule that 20% of the employees do 80% of the work.
This also applied at the NSA, but not because the lesser 80% is lazy. Instead, the productive 20% is amazing: mathematical geniuses, grandmaster software developers, intelligence analysts comparable to Sherlock Holmes, etc. I loved working with those people, because the amazing 20% needed us ordinary 80% to reach their full potential. The mathematical geniuses needed mathematican/programmers to write proof-of-concept code, the grandmaster software developers needed good algorithms, and the Sherlockian intelligence analysts needed statistical analyses. A good team lets the best people turbocharge their power because the ordinary people are their support.
This ties back to the topic of losing those best employees. When the bureaucracy refuses to adapt to amazing new hires, when it tells them that they will be able to work on projects worthy of their abilities after they spend years climbing the ladder of managerial authority, the agency loses those people. The experienced professionals try to prevent that, but sometimes an office is clueless about treating people properly. If anyone is hired by the NSA, start in a development program, such as the Cryptologic Mathematics Program (CMP). Those programs match new hires to interesting work.
As for the consultant friend of Enkita’s father, the Board made a big mess, but his original suggestion was flawed. He would have left the productive 20% doing 100% of the work instead of 80% of the work. Not only does that increase their workload by 25%, but it also piles work on them that they are not necessarily good at. And these dedicated people were probably already doing the maximum work they could handle.
6 Likes
Also by the pseudo-MRA anarchistbros who love Wikileaks.
3 Likes
The Pareto principle is hardly set in stone - it was a number identified by an Italian economist and related to the Italian economy, since when it has repeatedly been cited by lazy people even in cases where it is quite wrong. It’s an observation, not a law.
I actually worked for said consultant in a vacation job, and it’s interesting how you, a random commentator*, can tell me his proposal was flawed when I only gave the smallest outline of it. Any flaws are my summary. The point was that he identified the people who were doing more or less all the work; he identified many processes that were completely redundant, unnecessary duplication of effort, empire building, a layer of middle management that wasn’t needed, and came up with a reorganisation that enabled the people doing effective work (actually insurance brokers) to work efficiently and with suitable support. Where I worked for him, he was bringing in the first computer system - an ICL 9000 series mainframe - and automating various labour intensive processes. He brought in operating practices that made things more varied and interesting. I got to do a little covert time and motion study, I worked for a few weeks in a department scheduled for modernisation and was asked to report on who was likely to have a positive, and who a negative, approach to change - a cheeky schoolboy can find out a lot - and I also got to do some debugging. When I became a director, years later, I tried to apply lessons I had learnt aged about 16.
*So am I, but I hope I usually don’t over analyse situations which I know very little about.
6 Likes
Observation of one particular individual without backing evidence being widely applied? Sounds like someone is doing economics!
13 Likes
So then we have “Six Eyes”?
2 Likes
I have seen decisions made from as little information as the small outline, and lived through the resulting mess. Some decision-makers have acted like a small handful of numbers tell the full story, and as a mathematician I have tried to persuade them otherwise and usually failed. I apologize for overgeneralizing about the consultant. I used your story to build a cautionary tale based on my own experiences, when the reality of your story did not deserve it.
5 Likes
Your astute analysis notwithstanding, Wikileaks has always seemed to me a journalistic organization devoted to revealing the secrets of powerful governments and organizations. The secret machinations of the Clinton camp and the DNC as they conspired to suppress Bernie Sanders is undoubtedly newsworthy, whether or not it had the effect of helping Trump. I, for one, prefer to know about what my government is doing in secret. I’m grateful to Wikileaks for shining light on corrupt institutions of power worldwide, including the U.S.
As for the rape allegations, I have no idea what if anything is true (and neither do you) but I do know that:
- Assange has never been charged with any crime.
- The allegations were investigated while he was in Sweden, dismissed as groundless, and he was allowed to leave the country. Only after the big-ticket leaks of U.S. documents did they re-emerge as an issue.
- The United Nations has ruled that he is being unlawfully detained and that he deserves compensation for his six years of unlawful detention.
1 Like
FTFY…
5 Likes
Perhaps you should choose not to work for them (as well as to not work for the NSA peepers).
I work with at least two ex-NSA employees (quit pre-Snowden). Strangely, both are Snowden fans…
5 Likes
Because he fled the country after initially being questioned and failed to return to the point of hiding in an embassy for years…
He’s not detained at all. He can leave that embassy any time he wants to (if he’s willing to face being forced to answer questions about alleged crimes).
Please don’t play the “poor, innocent Assange” card. Innocent people don’t flee questioning (for years) and hide in embassies.
4 Likes
Because he fled the country after initially being questioned and failed to return to the point of hiding in an embassy for years…
Assange did not “flee” Sweden. He left the country after the authorities indicated they had no cause to detain him further. Assange has been very clear he is quite willing to return to Sweden to answer any questions about the sexual assault allegations.
However he will only do so if the Swedish government will promise not to turn him over to the United States, where a secret grand jury investigation into Wikileaks has been going on for years and where Assange could face indefinite detention and worse in one of our secret black sites. Considering the U.S. government’s torture and ongoing mistreatment of his famous source Chelsea Manning, Assange is quite justified in being unwilling to take the risk of being turned over to the U.S. to face similar treatment.
He’s not detained at all. He can leave that embassy any time he wants to (if he’s willing to face being forced to answer questions about alleged crimes).
If you have a problem with the term “detained” perhaps you should take it up with the United Nations, which ruled he has been “arbitrarily detained” by not being guaranteed safe passage out of the UK despite the fact he has received asylum from another sovereign nation. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/04/julian-assange-wikileaks-arrest-friday-un-investigation
3 Likes
I’d love to put conditions on when I’d be willing to conform with requests from law enforcement.
Keep painting a probable rapist as a martyr.
2 Likes
