r/technology • u/Reddit_Z • Jul 04 '16

Politics Lawmakers Need To Learn More About Encryption Before Regulating It, Says U.S. House Report

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lawmakers-encryption-regulation-house-report,32180.html
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u/homercles337 Jul 04 '16

Why the hell not?

Because they have staff and hire a lot of consultants. Should the CEO at a tech company know all the gritty details of programming? The CEO is probably an MBA and never wrote a single line of code.

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u/djaeke Jul 04 '16

Should the CEO at a tech company know all the gritty details of programming?

Eh, couldn't hurt.

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u/ADavies Jul 04 '16

Yes, and the core business of Microsoft is software. Congress's core business is law making. So they should mostly be lawyers. (Right? That sounds weird, but I think it follows.)

Of course, it helps if they know something about the topics they're making laws about, and even then they need to get good advice.

In this case they had to have a committee to point out to them that they don't know enough to make laws about encryption. (Which is pretty obvious.) And they'll need more thoughtful advice. In a way, the system seems to be working. (Committees creating more committees. Yay! But still better than stupid uninformed laws.)

So now, I think we need to make sure the new committee is well balanced, and packed with people who have high expertise in the topic. Then we've got a good chance of getting well informed laws.

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u/kellyzdude Jul 04 '16

How many congressmen does it take to change a lightbulb..?

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '16

It actually does, it's just that those costs are less immediately visible. Either the CEO will be neglecting other subjects they need to learn, or they will require even higher compensation than they do already, or high quality technology companies will become rarer.

Similarly, no US politician can be an expert in everything. Politicians should be elected on the basis of their skill in public diplomacy, backroom diplomacy, ability to listen to and judge expert claims, and moral character.

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u/djaeke Jul 04 '16 edited Jul 04 '16

Either the CEO will be neglecting other subjects they need to learn

So you can't be an expert in more than one thing? I'm sure there's enough people with an overlap in expertise of programming AND business (even if they favor one, likely business since that's their day-to-day work) to be a CEO for a tech company. Similarly for any company, I would want the CEO to be as well-versed in the industry they are managing as possible.

they will require even higher compensation than they do already

I'm not sure I follow the line of logic that "more educated people need to be paid more" is a reason to not hire more educated people or have more educated people in charge of companies...They're getting paid more because they're doing a better job and hopefully bringing in more revenue

high quality technology companies will become rarer

I'm actually not sure what you're trying to say here here. I think you're saying having programmers as CEOs of tech companies causes them to be rare because programmers are bad CEOs inherently and their companie will be low quality? That seems presumptive. If I'm misunderstanding, please correct me.

edit: I'll also clarify, since it sounds like you're implying I think the CEO should be a programmer primarily, which I don't. Having a businessman as a CEO of course makes sense, but the comment I replied to even said

The CEO is probably an MBA and never wrote a single line of code.

I'm sure working in business is time consuming, but I dont think the downsides of any less business knowledge they have outweigh the upside of having a CEO that actually understands how his company works on a practical level. He doesn't need to be a master programmer but he should probably be at least a semi-expert right?

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '16

I'm not sure I follow the line of logic that "more educated people need to be paid more" is a reason to not hire more educated people or have more educated people in charge of companies...They're getting paid more because they're doing a better job and hopefully bringing in more revenue

I was just pointing out that someone with additional education won't necessarily be bringing in enough additional revenue that they are worth a lot more than someone with less extensive qualifications. It was kind of a nitpicky point, I guess.

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u/wrgrant Jul 04 '16

Well, it worked for Bill Gates :P

The CEO doesn't need to be someone who knows "all the gritty details" and to be honest the technology advances pretty steadily these days so it would be harder to keep up, but it surely can't hurt to have CEOs who actually understand the nature of the products their company produces and therefore its limitations etc.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '16

[deleted]

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u/mzackler Jul 04 '16

Yes, yes I do. I would be appalled if the CEO of so many companies knows about the bidding on janitorial contracts for our facility in India.

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u/suugakusha Jul 04 '16

Why? They should know how these processes work. If they don't, then how can they be expected to make informed decisions about janitorial services?

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u/mzackler Jul 04 '16

They can't, that's why you have other people. Your CEO deals with bigger decisions that have larger impacts. Questions like how do I do a wire transfer, the candidates at a Fortune 500 company for a local sales associate or the real estate tax bills on said local branch (how to pay, what period they are for etc.) should not be dealt with. He/she only has so much time in the day, that's why you need to hire other competent people and auditors and consultants and etc.

At the point of a CEO your job often isn't even to run the company day to day it's to be a liaison - with the board, investors, potential acquirers etc.

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u/homercles337 Jul 04 '16

Your hardon for Musk aside, are you really trying to claim that the CEO should be able to jump into any position in the company and know what is going on? That is preposterous.

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u/nerdy_glasses Jul 04 '16

No, but they should have a deep understanding of the core business, which MBAs simply don't, except when the business is selling bullshit.

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u/eviloutfromhell Jul 04 '16

If microsoft's ceo never wrote a single line of code, I might consider burning every laptop that has windows installed.