[LINK] The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can

[David]

On Thursday, 31 July 2025 19:13:28 AEST Antony Barry wrote:
> The article "The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can" explores the challenge of AI adoption in organizations through two influential ideas: the Garbage Can Model from organizational theory and the Bitter Lesson from AI research.

It's a little ironic the NSW State Government is so anxious to demonstrate their interest in the shiny new AI toy when their current customer-based online systems are so poor.

Placing forms online which make sense to a trained employee, familiar with departmental processes and legal requirements, simply complicates matters for untrained members of the public in unfamiliar situations.

Then at a purely technical level, we were today invited to complete a PDF "XFA" form which announced it required a PDF update and invited the user to do so.  But according to Wikipedia:

> XFA (also known as XFA forms) stands for XML Forms Architecture, a family of proprietary XML specifications that was suggested and developed by JetForm to enhance the processing of web forms. It can be also used in PDF files starting with the PDF 1.5 specification. The XFA specification is referenced as an external specification necessary for full application of the ISO 32000-1 specification (PDF 1.7). The XML Forms Architecture was not standardized as an ISO standard,[3] and has been deprecated in PDF 2.0.[4]

Has the NSW Govt. ever heard of public standards?  Why are they employing XFA, which is "not standardized as an ISO standard, and has been deprecated in PDF 2.0.[4]"?  Just imagine how much hot water they could get into with AI...

_DavidL_