Our Take, with Doug Sheridan
Andy Kessler writes in the WSJ, is anything reliable anymore? At the very least reliability is a lost art.
Our Take, with Doug Sheridan
Andy Kessler writes in the WSJ, is anything reliable anymore? At the very least reliability is a lost art.
Back in the day, the electric grid and phone system were designed for “five 9s” or 99.999% reliability—five minutes of unscheduled downtime a year. We now schedule rolling blackouts in California—planned failure. Last month, AT&T’s cellular network went down for around 11 hours. AT&T provided $5 credits to customers. Thanks for nothing.
We’re now preconditioned to accept failure. Folks used to repair toasters. Now they’re disposable. For many items, when a piece of cheap plastic breaks, we chuck it and buy another one, including televisions and many appliances. Sadly, our trust in everyday things is now disposable, too.
Streaming services are no better. Netflix shows a spinning wheel stuck at 63%. Ovens and dishwashers flash F20 error codes. Coffee machines blink orange. This lack of reliability is built into the price of our “chunkable” things.
We’re stuck driving with the “check engine” idiot light and “service overdue by 3,500 miles” warnings because they turn into $1,500 visits to the dealer to flip a switch. And when was the last time a flight was on time? Plus, keep your seat belt fastened the entire flight—loose bolts and flying door plugs.
AI has brought the long-dormant word “hallucinations” back. Google is paying $60MM to Reddit to train AI models, almost guaranteeing more incoherence, conspiracy theories, and ramblings. Data breaches happen almost daily. They’re considered normal.
We pay for this complacency elsewhere, especially as our indifference to reliability has jumped from products to politics. We know the media is unreliable… no, biased… but we shrug. Same for many posts on Facebook or Twitter. We’re conditioned to accept biases and fakes.
Lockdowns. Six-foot social distancing. Closed schools. In retrospect, all unnecessary. “Follow the science” doesn’t work when the “science” is unreliable. Why would anyone listen to our public officials ever again?
The loss of reliability is too ingrained in society. How do we fix it?
Our Take 1: There’s no question our society is undergoing a deterioration in reliability. Much of it emanates from Silicon Valley. Remember Zuckerberg’s mantra, “Move fast and break things.” Cool man! Was that Sam Bankman-Fried’s motto, too?
Out Take 2: We were recently encouraged by AT&T to switch our phone service from fiber-optic landline to internet-based service. Bad idea. We can’t remember a time when our landline dropped a call. Now, it’s almost guaranteed to happen if the call runs more than 15 minutes. Oh yeah, and 5G routers now overheat—like a 1950 Buick.
Our Take 3: All the so-called “energy experts” pushing wind, solar and batteries know the only way they can get away with shabby renewables-laden grids is to convince us that reliable electricity is a luxury we can no longer afford. Sadly, much of our zombified citizenry may believe them. Do you?
Califorlornia have been over-regular since 1999. I have been a witness, as I done telecommunications and energy lobbyist in the period. One party CA is simply ugly.
In California, the Public Utilities Commission is in current discussions with AT&T to remove all their landline infrastructure support in the state. Many seniors rely on this service, and it's bound to be a disaster.