Maybe the problem is that the amount of pertinent technical knowledge is growing, like the amount of scientific knowledge, and it exceeds any one person's or any one organization's grasp. Not to mention all the obsolescent knowledge. You talk as if there were someone, somewhere, who has an adequate grasp of all the details. Or as if you could sit down and study for a few weeks and be competent. Or as if there were some well known amount of time to budget each year for study to keep yourself up to date. There ain't no such person, no such book, and no such plan. If you felt competent in the past, it's simply that you chose your areas of ignorance well or were sublimely blind to them.
So when CBS headlines: 'Obama on NSA programs: Americans "not getting the complete story"', yeah, like who is getting the complete story? Does Obama understand how these programs work? No, he understands what Clapper and his other security wonks tell him. Who's got the the complete skivvy on how the NSA programs actually work? Who has the more complete understanding of all the technology that the NSA spends its secret budget on and the ramifications of that technology? The president of the united states? Or a 29 year old sysadm? -- rec --
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