this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Y'all, this has nothing to do with the curvature of the Earth. There are mountains and multiple no-fly zones that would be crossed if they flew in a straight line.
It's still presented in an anti-intellectual "just asking questions" format though.
Further we are all just internet jabronis. It isn't literally our job to know this stuff. Knowing this stuff is kind of literally this guys job. Knowing the things you just described is kind of the whole "logistics" thing.
Whatever the reasons for the path are, we accept that qualified people know what they are doing. In asking this question, he is showing how unqualified he is.
I worked for almost 40 years at a company that made rocket engines. For the first couple decades (and all the time prior to my starting there), the head of the company was someone who came up through the ranks. They were very knowledgeable about rocket engines, or at least very knowledgeable at the aspect that they worked on (there are a lot of specialties involved), and somewhat knowledgeable about the others.
But as the company traded hands, we ended up with CEOs or GMs that knew nothing about rockets and instead were just focused on the business aspects of it. Some of them were smart people, but they wouldn't have cared if the company was making spoons or skateboards. From my vantage point, the company really went downhill when that happened, but I don't think it's uncommon these days.
So I wouldn't be surprised if this guy knows nothing about logistics.
Thank you for articulating why exactly I felt this way about the post. I couldn't quite get to that point myself.
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but this kind of sounds like a technofascist trial balloon to push for the privatization of the US military. The implication being
Project 2025 was not written by Trump even if he is the executor/scapegoat. Smart people exist and work for the politicians, shareholders and lobbyists that shape current US policy. And trial balloons don't need to be cleverly worked out, in the era of Trump you can just throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks, and pay private media to not make a story out of the rest. There's a good chance this will come to nothing, but why wouldn't a petty technocrat try to ingratiate himself to the new technofascist regime by offering a win-win.
Good point when a smart person says something undeniably dumb, you have to remember there is intent behind the statement. What that intent is usually presents itself much later.
What makes you think the CEO who posted the tweet is smart?
No… that the people running the show who should know how the businesses they make decisions for actually work.
The fact that google maps does not use a projection where direct routes appear as straight lines, that planes take great circle routes, and that there are hubs which make direct point-to-point flights less efficient should be no surprise to anyone, let alone the CEO of a logistics company, for whom it is literally their job to know how this shit works.
It really isn't their job to know how it works. Their job is to manage other people who know how it works.
So why is he there then instead of someone who at least understands the business a bit?
Plenty of takers for that salary.
He understands the business.
He doesn't understand technical details, which is something very different.
He tells people "go find the ideal route". He doesn't find the ideal route himself.
If a CEO of a large company attempted to learn all skills of every single one of his employees, he would spend a couple centuries learning, instead of doing his job.
His job being: Telling the right people to find the ideal route.
And he himself clearly isn't one of these people. And he doesn't need to be.
(You wouldn't expect Tim Cook to know every legal detail of all the countries he trades to either. Because that's not his job. His job is to hire lawyers who know every legal detail of all the countries he trades to.)
Though he might be ridiculed less if instead of posting on xitter he went to one of his workers who work in this field and ask them why the flight plan was plotted that way.
Yeah I was like if he works in logistics while not ask an employee, surely he'd have a CTO or someone technical nearby to grab?
I mean, I guess: if you think their job is to be a shitty incompetent CEO.
Im not saying they need to know how to do the job of everyone at the company, but they certainly should know what their company does and how.
They should know enough about how it works to not waste the time of those who work by asking stupid questions. But maybe that is why he resorted to asking the internet instead.
I mean yeah, he's asking stupid questions to the internet.
He doesn't ask his engineers, who've got better things to do than to answer his questions.
He likely thought "Oh, that route planning looks odd. Since I'm sure the engineers know what they're doing, this must be the ideal path, but I certainly am curious as to why that is. Hey X, why don't the planes fly in straight lines?"
It's a perfectly legitimate question to ask for someone who's job isn't engineering, but hiring people who hire people who's job is engineering.
Engineers are generally happy to answer their manager's / funder's questions bc that means that they care about the details and can make more informed decisions. Also, the manager learns who they can call for in case of an emergency where they need something explained.
I agree. I only added that to not argue with the parent comment about their point that CEOs should "not waste the time of those who work by asking stupid questions".
Because the correct answer to his question is: "First day on the job, huh?"
He runs a logistics company. This is literally his job.