(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best insurance books

Here's a much better telling of a similar story than I could do on my phone:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307961540/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/178-3047458-7974958

Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0025293508/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1426605519&sr=8-1&keywords=what%27s+wrong+with+your+life+insurance&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Uninsured-National-Insurance/dp/0195312031

Get the book Insurance Logic. It's written for Canadians and will explain everything you need to know about insurance. I just got it and I am starting to read through it.

For anyone wondering, the survival guide is a real thing.

My current favourite books:

Six skills and other Discussions

Staying Alive

Deco for Divers

Questions and Answers on Life Insurance: The Life Insurance Toolbook

Am currently reading Wendell Potter's Deadly Spin. It chills the blood. This news just fits right in. Read about the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Spin-Insurance-Corporate-Deceiving/dp/1608192814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290041717&sr=8-1

I happen to work for a company that develops software that runs on airplanes. My job function is to help create and maintain tools that assist with ensuring said software works correctly.

(This is a simplification)
Per the FAA's FAR Part 21, you are required to follow rigorous steps and provide evidence that you followed those steps. To assist in this, an organization called the RTCA developed a number of documents, in coordination with experts in the industry that more specifically detail exactly how you have to do things.

The most important, industry standard, document for flight-worthy software that I'm aware of is DO-178 (which is currently in revision C). This document tells you what rigor you must follow in order to prove your software works as intended. The rigor is adjustable based on something called a Design Assurance Level, or DAL.

Basically, DALs are categories for software based on the impact failure of that software would have. For instance, "Failure may cause a crash. Error or loss of critical function required to safely fly and land aircraft." is considered Catastrophic and would require the highest level of rigor available in DO-178, Level A. Less critical software, "Failure has no impact on safety, aircraft operation, or crew workload.", receives Level E, and has the least rigor (but still has rigor). And there are levels B, C and D as well, covering ever increasing calamity if your software fails.

DO-178 covers verification and validation. To develop the product, there are a plethora of standards that you can employ. At least in the US, they primarily come from RTCA (the DOs), ARINC (ARINC 100-900 series documents), and MIL-STD documents (for military applications).

Some of these specifications dictate how your software must behave. For instance, my understanding (and I don't write flight-worthy software, so I might be wrong here) is that at certain DALs, you're not allowed to allocate new memory (malloc/new) at any point after an initial startup of the software. Once running, you have to have a static memory footprint.

All of this stuff is aggregated into each company's own policies and procedures. My company has their own proprietary processes for following meeting all of this. During the process, we're audited multiple times to ensure things are done correctly. It's an incredibly complex process.

I learned what I know on the job through various trainings that my company provides, through experience and through my own research. But all of that training really is intended to help you learn all of the standards and practices so that you can work day to day within them.

And this is just for flight-worthy software. There are other standards and practices for hardware, for data, for data formats, for mechanically constructed objects, etc. And that's just for aviation. Each major industry that has safety/mission-critical engineered products has their own set of standards and practices that you have to learn to follow.

Keep an eye on the automotive industry as autonomous cars are developed. That's probably the one safety critical industry that's in its infancy. I suspect much of the FAA stuff will be adopted/evaluated to apply there given the sheer safety of air travel, at least via the US/FAA (take a look here and see the last time a US originated airline suffered fatalities).

EDIT: Actually read the questions on SO:
Question 1: The difference, is in standards, practices, policies, procedures, and oversight that you MUST adhere to. There is plenty you can do to build good, reliable software that is not mission critical, you're just not required by regulation to do it.

Question 2: I think (from my experience) that they receive that training as introductory software quality assurance classes in a software engineering program in college and then followed primarily by on the job training. Also, there are plenty of companies out there that specialize in training people to the standards in their industry. I just find that those companies are usually brought in by the company you work for, not something you go get yourself.

Question 3: This is tricky. It's industry specific, for one, but it's also pricey. Every document I mentioned above costs money. Each individual RTCA DO document costs money (for instance, RTCA charges $250 for a soft copy of DO-178C on their website). The ARINC documents will be similar. But there are also books out there that cover this specialty (for instance this). And I haven't really looked, but I'm sure there are colleges out there that have degree programs specifically for safety critical software development.

For anyone who wants more information on our health insurance system and it's problems, here's a few ideas (all VERY good):

TV: Frontline-Sick Around America

TV: Frontline-Sick Around The World

BOOK: Critical Condition

BOOK: One Nation Uninsured

It can get a bit dry, but I read "What's Wrong With Your Life Insurance" when looking into Life Insurance. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0025293508/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1426605519&sr=8-1&keywords=what%27s+wrong+with+your+life+insurance&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

TL;DR: buy term insurance

I'm really surprised that no one has linked the two major pieces of journalism that have re-sparked this debate:

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us By Steven Brill

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

Here is a video of the two discussing the healthcare system on Fareed Zakaria's GPS.

Here is a radio interview of Stephen Brill discussing his findings in more depth with Diane Rehm. Here is the transcript.

I'd very strongly recommend you at least watch the video if you are interested in this topic.

Teaser: The core of the problem is that buyers (other than Medicare) have no market power. People with emergency situations or life-threatening illnesses do not usually have choice in the market. In such a situation, markets cannot function efficiently. Example: hospitals have up to 100x price markup on common medicines.

yeah, the idea that money would go directly from the consumer to the people doing the work is so outlandish... Why not throw a bunch of middle men in the way to add unneeded costs and profits for doing fuck all? That's the american way!

Read a fucking book you moron. Here's a great start: https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/0143110853/

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Too poor to buy it? Try overdrive.com or your local library?

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Is that too inconvenient? try libgen.io

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You are fucking stupid because you are too stupid and lazy to learn about the system.

> Jaja, die guten alten Doomsday Szenarien.

Doomstay ist wenn das System nicht ersetzt wird. Das wird es aber davor.

> Im Endeffekt hat diese "Diskussion" keinen Zweck, da ich dir Argumente für meine Position liefere, dein Argument ist aber lediglich "das österreichische System ist das beste, die USA wird nachziehen müssen"

Hab ja nicht gesagt, dass das oesterreichische System das Beste ist. Allerdings gibt es einige Stimmen in den USA die genau das System "Der Staat rettet dir das Leben" und "Privat macht dir das Leben schoen" propagieren. Eine Diskussion zu dem Thema gibts hier zB mit David Goldhill der auch ein Buch dazu geschrieben hat: https://www.amazon.com/Catastrophic-Care-American-Health-Father-ebook/dp/B00957T4QK

Und das ist so ziemlich die kapitalistischte Loesung fuer das amerikanische Gesundheitssystem das bis jetzt propagiert wurde. Deckt sich halt lustigerweise ziemlich genau damit wo das oesterreichsche System seit einigen Jahren hinverkommt.