[jancsika]

> People who want to study earthquakes need to go where there are fault lines. People who want to solve hard problems need to go where those problems live.

People who want to study earthquakes don't get paid by the earthquakes.

Author works for a defense contractor.

I'd need a ton of evidence that this particular defense contractor has the goal of doing something inherently safe with AI before I'd read the author's analogy as anything other than the written equivalent of getting drunk at the local bar to cope with a dysfunctional marriage.

[TheOtherHobbes]

People who want to study earthquakes will keep a distance and model and measure remotely.

The idea that seismologists actually want to experience massive destruction personally is bizarre, and completely wrong.

[EdwardDiego]

Seismologists don't just sit there making models. They also like to do things like drill big holes into faultlines.

If you're studying faultlines, you want to have reasonable access to the subject of your study. Otherwise you may as well be a marine biologist living in Kansas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ZPq5FRmnE https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/News-and-Events/Media-Releases-a...

Physical measurement is used to make better models, you need both. This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH_PAGimWJM informs this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipS-7kGe9c

Likewise, if you want to study volcanoes, you'd want to have access to volcanoes.

https://youtu.be/eJGmkOFBDvg

[jancsika]

> People who want to study earthquakes will keep a distance and model and measure remotely.

Hee hee, I completely missed that implication of the analogy.

There really should be an "earthquake chasers" reality show if there isn't already. Like, they get a signal from that early warning system in the U.S., the countdown starts and then reaches zero by the time they jump in their van.

The rest of the episode would be counting the seconds as they hurry toward their destination, only to arrive upset that yet again they missed it by only a few tens of thousands of seconds.

[phillipcarter]

Yeah, the post definitely has some serious "tell me you aren't a geologist without telling me you aren't a geologist" energy.

[fsckboy]

well, volcanologist Robert Landsburg was killed studying Mt St Helens

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/last-moments-bef...

[masterj]

The author also has a long history of working at many places that aren't defense contractors, and a great book on working with large legacy systems (read: Cobol, mainframes, et al but relevant to all developers) https://www.amazon.ca/Kill-Fire-Manage-Computer-Systems/dp/1...

[kilobaud]

Seismically active regions (e.g. California) absolutely have more earthquake experts than other places... I am not sure why that metaphor is singled out when the rest of the article is pretty clear its about finding the difference between a burning building and a building-set-on-fire.

Firefighters don't just read about fires, they practice with actual flames, too.