[clug] Anti-Virus Software

[Sam Couter]

David Cottrill <cottrill.david at gmail.com> wrote:
> To me, this topic has show cased a few things. Principle is the low
> standard of decisions we have come to expect from our politicians,

They're elected because they're popular, not intelligent or wise.

Intelligent and wise are attributes of nerds and nobody likes them,
deferring decisions until adequate information is available is weak,
changing your mind when you realise you're wrong is being a
flip-flopper and anti-intellectualism is perceived as strength and
determination.

When people demand simple answers to complex problems, there's no other
possible outcome.

In short, people suck and get the leaders they deserve.

> second is the high acceptance of low standard tech journalism.

It's the same with all journalism. Any technical or detailed aspect
will be simplified to the point of being incorrect in order to remain
accessible to the wider lay audience. This applies to IT, law, science,
civil or mechanical engineering, etc. See poor reporting on Toyota's
stuck throttle problems for an example.

And I think it's mostly reasonable on the journalist's part. Neither they
nor the layman can't really be expected to understand everything. What I
think isn't reasonable is that more detailed and correct reporting isn't
widely available. As I said before, intellectualism isn't perceived as a
desirable trait, and therefore it doesn't sell newspapers.

In short, people suck and enjoy being stupid and that's what journalists
must pitch to.

> It is fantastic (and unusual) that this group is self moderating to
> the degree that someone can be relied on to fully research any
> 'fact' and the culture permits dispute and debate.

Great ideas can only come about in a culture of discussion, dispute,
criticism and debate.
-- 
Sam Couter         |  mailto:sam at couter.id.au
OpenPGP fingerprint:  A46B 9BB5 3148 7BEA 1F05  5BD5 8530 03AE DE89 C75C
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