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Both computers and finance are pervasive technologies. So much of our society makes use of both of those, and much else can easily be cast into those terms. That can easily make those skills seem universal.

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I think that's made worse by our education systems. If you get a CS degree or an MBA, you can expect to jump into a wide variety of jobs with no industry-specific training or experience.

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That's something I've benefited hugely from as a techie. I've gotten to work in so many different industries: education, finance, publishing, government, non-profits, and more. It has been a huge joy to dive in and learn about another slice of the world. Another set of people and their industry-specific language and culture.

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But I think it's very easy for people with both CS and MBA degrees to start out thinking a broadly applicable skill means they don't have to learn anything. When in my experience, it's the opposite: if you want to be truly effective, you have to dig in and get up to speed pronto. And you'll have to develop a lot of respect for people who know the domain, and for the complexities they've taken years to understand.

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But what if you don't care about being truly effective? What if you're goal is quick nominal wins or self aggrandizement or just extracting a bunch of cash and moving on? In that case, arrogance and ignorance aren't problems, they're tools.
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So what I am seeing in DOGE is the confluence of two kinds of aggressive ignorance. It's a bunch of mouthy white dudes who are used to jumping in, performing genius, and fucking with things they don't understand. Things they won't ever understand. And those dudes, having never experienced the sting of consequences, can even conceive that there might be a problem.

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It could be otherwise, of course. I'm reminded of the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer. In response to a fatal bridge collapse, a Canadian engineering professor created a ceremony to remind graduating engineers that they had a duty to society: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_of_the_Calling_of_an_Engineer

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@williampietri I ended up as a professional software developer after graduating in math. As a Canadian, I've always bristled at being called a software engineer, because I don't have the ring.

@williampietri I would agree.

From my experience, it's just too easy for someone to push an imperfect solution for the sake of a deadline.

I'm sure the pressure is there in other engineering fields, but a bridge collapsing is more tangible than software bugs.