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points by aleph_minus_one 4 days ago | 0 comments

> A lot of people just think laptop == laptop.

We are talking about highly educated people who work in software development (i.e. can assumed to have some minimum viable knowledge about computers), and not about the dumbest imaginable users.

[–] pixl97 3 days ago

SWE's are the worst about security, I swear most are worse than the average person when it comes to security practices.

"Need some new software" = "Download it from some random website"

"Software won't run" = "Turn off AV and get it everything permission"

"Still won't run" = "run as root"

[–] aleph_minus_one 3 days ago

> SWE's are the worst about security, I swear most are worse than the average person when it comes to security practices.

My experience is completely different: many software developers are rather paranoid with respect to security, and have quite a good (though far from expert-level) knowledge about security. It's rather that many software developers are quite hostile to security practices that are mostly "security theater" and obstructs them in doing their work.

The following Reddit post

> https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1e8do2...

and the top answer

> https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1e8do2...

describe the mindset that I observe rather well.

[–] winstonwinston 3 days ago

Many devs downplay security practices when they think/know it can be defeated in one or more ways, but those practices are not a security theater.

[–] paxy 3 days ago

Educated != smart

Plenty of software engineeers (and doctors, lawyers, scientists...) are geniuses in their field but have zero common sense.

[–] 999900000999 4 days ago

> Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.

-Darth Vader.

Being able to make React components does not require you to be smarter than the average person.

You also have multiple types of intelligence. I worked with a brilliant intern once. The kid was over 100k in student loan debt and didn’t know the loans can’t get discharged.

[–] draygonia 3 days ago

They can be discharged if you are determined to be disabled by a doctor and live for 3 years below the poverty income limit.

[–] 999900000999 3 days ago

The bar for that is extremely high.

They can garnish Social Security if you default on Student Loans.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-social-security-garnis...

[–] draygonia 3 days ago

The bar for disability for the Dept of Education is far lower than the bar to qualify for Social Security Disability. A simple letter from a doctor is all you need to discharge the student loans (plus living 3 years under the poverty limit).

[–] 999900000999 3 days ago

Good to know.

I’m not going to look it up, but at a certain point you’re judgement proof anyway.

I suspect that many desperately poor can successfully dodge the garnishment.

[–] koito17 3 days ago

It's an anecdote, but one of my coworkers has Steam installed on his MacBook (of all computers). He is a data scientist. Technically, we're only allowed to install software from an approved list maintained by the IT security team. They clearly aren't enforcing that policy, though.

[–] vkou 3 days ago

Don't worry, they'll enforce it when someone installs something unapproved and it causes a problem.

[–] dylan604 4 days ago

> We are talking about highly educated people

That's a bit of charity isn't it? Lot's of people in tech that really not that clever even if they are smart. Also, people in HR aren't as tech savvy.

[–] aleph_minus_one 3 days ago

Nearly all people who work in tech have a university degree, many even a PhD.

[–] xhkkffbf 3 days ago

Except for the bosses like Zuckerberg, Jobs, Wozniak, Gates....

Do I need to go on?

[–] f6v 3 days ago

There’re plenty of dumb people with a PhD. I’ve done three semesters of calculus and advanced physics for my BSc in engineering. Looking back, there wasn’t all that much to develop my critical thinking. Like, you can solve the problems and still say the stupidest shit.

It wasn’t until my PhD when I took an elective in Argumentation theory that I learned about constructing a good argument. And I only learned about fallacies somewhere on the internet.

* I have a PhD in STEM.

[–] justsomehnguy 3 days ago

Thanks for the laughs.

No, 'people who work in software development' != 'highly educated people' and those both != 'understand how computers work'.

[–] vkou 3 days ago

> highly educated people who work in software development

> dumbest imaginable users.

They are often one and the same.