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Credit

siiky

2020/04/30

2022/07/07

DISCLAIMER: This post has nothing to do with me or CVE-2020-26935.

CVE-2020-26935

There are some types of work or achievements at work that can be credited directly to one person or small group of people. I don't mean fixing bugs or developing some new fancy useless feature, but, for example, a new revolutionary algorithm, protocol, or cryptographic system. This may or may not be a part of their job. Sometimes a white paper about the novelty is written and published; sometimes it isn't. In either case, it is not uncommon for the matter to break out on news and social media sites. The titles usually go something like "$COMPANY does $BIGTHING".

Is this right?

A few months ago news with a title somewhat similar to the above broke out, and the company was the one I work for. It was really big news, and all thanks to the work of a group of two or three people in the company. Not anyone else. What name is mentioned in the title? The company's. Who did the work? Some nameless group inside the company.

One day, at lunch, the topic came up because of something the head of that small group replied in an interview, when asked "What are your comments about $COMPANY having done $BIGTHING?": "Has it?". This coming up, almost at once, everyone got (figuratively) up, as if someone had insulted $PERSONALDEITY inside $DESIGNATEDPLACEOFWORSHIPOFSAIDDEITY. And I just really don't get it. Why would anyone think it's right to credit the company instead of the people who've actually done the thing? How can a company, not being a being, not in the possession of reason, not being able to take an action, not being able to affect the real physical world, possibly accomplish any a thing?

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on companies, but I believe crediting something/someone for something it/they haven't done is not right. I would say, if anything, the only credit companies deserve is for doing The Right Thing™ in investing on someone competent and deserving of the remuneration.

/rant

All companies not mentioned in this post are fictious, not real, and any resemblance to any other also not real companies is purely coincidental.