from Hacker News

Assassination is a leaky abstraction

by drc500free on 12/6/24, 1:08 AM with 73 comments

• by dang on 12/6/24, 5:03 AM

  Recent and related:

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• by lmm on 12/6/24, 1:29 AM

  Expecting individuals to hold a large organisation back from doing the things its incentivised to do solely through their personal morality is never going to work, and killing one dude doesn't change that. The entity interprets integrity as damage and routes around it. Railing against "greed" is an easy way to avoid doing anything that might actually change things.

  Ever wonder why only one country has these healthcare companies making such huge profits, and it's a country whose health outcomes are so much worse than its peers? It's not because their people are greedier than others, or more alienated, or individually less moral. It's because their health system is set up to reward that behaviour.

  (And if you want zip code to be less of a predictive feature, maybe legalise building housing. Or let your data analysts talk honestly about race, either would work.)

• by cocacola1 on 12/6/24, 1:22 AM

  I don't think the shooter could get a fair trial in the US because I'm not sure they could find a jury to convict them. I don't think I've seen a shooting that's been so devoid of any sympathy for the victim. Looking inward, though, I find myself more intrigued at the reaction than horrified by the killing.

• by panarky on 12/6/24, 1:29 AM

  You can exploit people for decades before they rise up and murder you.

  Leaders misinterpret decades of bloodlessness as peace, and as license to exploit even harder.

  But when the exploiters rig the legal system and the political system to deny people justice, eventually there will be blood.

  This is how it has always been. The ancient cycles of exploitation and payback are not about to stop now.

• by dfxm12 on 12/6/24, 1:35 AM

  it’s not clear what the fallout will be

  Some fallout: https://www.axios.com/2024/12/05/blue-cross-blue-shield-anes...

• by Rebelgecko on 12/6/24, 1:28 AM

  >So when UHC’s CEO was assassinated yesterday morning, on his way to brag to his shareholders about record profits

  IMO a lot of the discourse on this topic is based more on vibes that reality.

  UnitedHealthCare's profits are down YoY- both in absolute #s and in terms of their operating margin. (from 6.6% down to 5.6%). But if you frame the assassination as "CEO who has reduced the degree by which his company profits from sick people", you end up with a whole different batch of theories and motives.

  (note that UnitedHealthcare is a subset of UnitedHealthcare Group, so you have to dig into their filings to see UHC's numbers broken out)

• by drc500free on 12/6/24, 1:48 AM

  Hey folks. I know this one is a touchy subject. It is in no way intended to pile on those who are gleefully mocking a murder, and I should have probably included the subtitle ("Towards Ethical Data Science").

  Rather, it's an encouragement for people who are paid to build software and data systems that shape people's lives to take a moment to reflect on that impact.

• by scarfaceneo on 12/6/24, 10:29 AM

  HN: “you know, in reality the French Revolution was actually a bad thing. Feudalism is where it’s at”

• by lordofgibbons on 12/6/24, 1:33 AM

  I've never heard of a premeditated murder in broad daylight be so universally celebrated by Americans regardless of their political leanings.

  Other insurance companies have already started taking down personal information about their leadership teams. I guess they're afraid of copy-cats.

  But will it change anything related to their scummy business model, or will the state assert itself to maintain the status quo?

• by smitty1e on 12/6/24, 2:44 AM

  I submit that human beings are the Leaky Abstraction, and the techo-fetishing involved in reducing society to a series of spreadsheets and AI models is the Orwellian bugaboo.

  In my Glorious Future of Applied Handwaving, the system would trade some economies of scale for smaller organizations with more individual interactions. This involves some mechanism alongside the almighty dollar as an organizing mechanism. I don't know what that is.

  When the Leaky Abstractions happen, the flooding would be less severe.

• by dave333 on 12/6/24, 12:56 PM

  Maybe when Musk is done with the govmint he can fix healthcare.

• by morkalork on 12/6/24, 1:29 AM

  Well, I thought it was well written.

• by paxys on 12/6/24, 2:30 AM

  "Here's what assassinations taught me about B2B sales."

• by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on 12/6/24, 4:45 AM

  Is he suggesting the suspect should have targeted the data scientist not the CEO.