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Comment by stfp | Hacker News Reader

This makes fun at a dept of labor website for listing abilities:

> It tells veterans their primary skills are that they can "communicate by speaking" and "use [their] arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down." Thanks for your service. If you don't believe me, look for yourself.

But to me it’s clear why these abilities are listed: veterans with disabilities. The author not getting that is just… do you ever stop and think?

The author is also complaining that it took two years to get approval to use the cloud and using that to show that the govt is too slow. That’s a crazy take to me, there are countless large and small companies where this did and is taking longer.

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> But to me it’s clear why these abilities are listed: veterans with disabilities. The author not getting that is just… do you ever stop and think?

at what point do you stop treating people like they're not utter idiots though? the JD is a rotary drill operator. do you really need to list that you need finger and arm movement for this job? And, it's not solely for veterans with disabilities, it's for all veterans.

> The author is also complaining that it took two years to get approval to use the cloud and using that to show that the govt is too slow. That’s a crazy take to me, there are countless large and small companies where this did and is taking longer.

just because this happens elsewhere, doesn't mean that's excusable. also, author worked for the VA which is a lot more consequential for people than some rando corpo taking a long time to get a domain they want.

Stating it is not out of the ordinary isn't excusing it. Are you saying they should have rushed it? Is PHI data being leaked because they rushed it not consequential?

> Stating it is not out of the ordinary isn't excusing it.

that's literally what it is. why else mention other failures than to soften the blow of the current failure in front of you. that's an excuse to me. anything else is pedantics

> Are you saying they should have rushed it? Is PHI data being leaked because they rushed it not consequential?

huh? this is simply a domain transfer. In a non-idiotic world, the actual entity in charge of VA data (i.e the Dept of V.A) is doing data due diligence. the other entity doesn't need to care about this. what makes the Dept Of Labor the arbiters of PHI of veterans? And, even if they happen to be, why can't the VA become their own arbiters? Why not offload that power to make things move faster? To me, a needless example of bureaucracy. I can already imagine certain govt workers wielding this fake power to slow everything down to ensure their own survival

Unfortunately there a number of people who fail to take a moment and understand the “why” behind a problem or process.

I’ve enjoyed being on teams and organizations that have tried to focus on the “why” instead of jumping to conclusions because meaningful changes ended up getting implemented and future changes are a lot easier as a result of process change.

The author’s jump to conclusions just wastes everyone’s time and money.

Engineers are particularly prone to failing to understand the "why" when it falls outside of their technological area of expertise.

>The author not getting that is just… do you ever stop and think?

They refer to themselves as a "lifelong libertarian", so probably not since turning 14.

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