Delay may be okay; forbidding is not [LWN.net]

Delay may be okay; forbidding is not

Posted Jun 27, 2013 20:28 UTC (Thu) by david.a.wheeler (subscriber, #72896)
In reply to: IRS Puts Open Source Projects Under Microscope, Spawns Nonprofit Black Hole (Wired) by josh
Parent article: IRS Puts Open Source Projects Under Microscope, Spawns Nonprofit Black Hole (Wired)

If it was merely a delay, that might be appropriate. The IRS is required to check for legitimacy, and they should look for red flags that suggest problems. And if there are red flags, it makes sense that it'd take longer to check. But it sounds like the effect was to completely forbid, not merely delay, and that is unjustified. The law has certain requirements... if the requirements are met, then the status should be granted. Period.

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Delay may be okay; forbidding is not

Posted Jun 27, 2013 21:22 UTC (Thu) by josh (subscriber, #17465) [Link] (6 responses)

Agreed.

On the other hand, sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from malice. I can pretty easily imagine such bureaucracy leading to multi-year delays that aren't actually associated with a denial.

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 28, 2013 7:04 UTC (Fri) by oldtomas (guest, #72579) [Link] (5 responses)

"sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from malice"

I've never seen such an elegant generalization of Clarke's Third Law. You made my day!

Definitely QOTD worthy.

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 28, 2013 9:27 UTC (Fri) by k3ninho (subscriber, #50375) [Link] (4 responses)

I prefer the ramp up via Hanlon's Razor "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" which spawns "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice", known in some places as Grey's Law. The interchangeability of bureaucracy and incompetence is a given.

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 28, 2013 12:11 UTC (Fri) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link] (1 responses)

> The interchangeability of bureaucracy and incompetence is a given.

Just add "I think..." before any sentence that express a mere point of view, please.
It's so much better to not have definitive sentences if you don't have the intention to give arguments.

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 28, 2013 16:15 UTC (Fri) by k3ninho (subscriber, #50375) [Link]

>> The interchangeability of bureaucracy and incompetence is a given.
> I think you should just add "I think..." before any sentence that express a mere point of view, please.
> I think it's so much better to not have definitive sentences if you don't have the intention to give arguments.

TITIFTFY (There, I think I've fixed this for you). Further, from where I stand the sense of my words is prefaced by 'I prefer...' at the top and ultimately sidelined as non-argumentative by the jokey context for this branch of the discussion. I think that you might have overlooked this - no worries.

K3n.

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 28, 2013 15:13 UTC (Fri) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link]

> The interchangeability of bureaucracy and incompetence is a given.

It certainly seems so!

Advanced bureaucracy

Posted Jun 30, 2013 7:50 UTC (Sun) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

There is a such thing as 'incompetent malice'.

Unfortunately as you get older you find that incompetence and malice are not mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, they go together more often then not.

Delay may be okay; forbidding is not

Posted Jul 1, 2013 8:24 UTC (Mon) by egcroan (guest, #91645) [Link]

I do think it is a delay because of two reasons. The first being the situation RAHVIN so exoertly described above with the increase of a 3000% workliad with no additional manpower. The second being the IRS is so embattled by investigations theylittle time to actually focus intheir jobs instead of being paraded in front of a congress whose primary agenda is to embarrase this Administration no matter what effect it has on the USA.