boob_warbler

For 1, I’d like for you to think you’re telling a story, one that is really air tight and unambiguous. If you think putting all the calls in main() can help you tell that story, then so be it.

For 2, of late industrial software development has largely moved to keeping variables as local as possible so its easier to express provenance. This has been the case for at least a good 3-4 decades now.

At no extra cost, I’d like to give you an unsolicited advice. If you’re using modern, real C compilers like gcc or clang, I’d strongly recommend you pass -Wpedantic -pedantic-errors -Wall -Wextra on the command line.

gcc -Wpedantic -pedantic-errors -Wall -Wextra -Werror program.c

and if you’re using clang, also pass -Wmost along with the rest. Learning C is one thing. But following the standard rules right from the start, it will save you from unexpected grief later on. If you try compiling your code under these flags now, it will refuse to compile. I’d suggest you try fixing as much as you can, then go back to compiling the normal way until you get a hang of things.

Do you want an actual answer?

MKUltra was shutdown long ago, but several fragmented research continued and still lives on. MKNAOMI, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH were immediate successors. Later, ruwre was StarGate. And many many more undisclosed human experimentation.

Intelligence community behavioural science seems to be one such project, where they teach interrogating resistance, psychological profiling of adversaries, influence and propaganda analysis (not direct brain control).

While modern variants don’t have any official names or are even disclosed, its safe to assume they still are conducting human experimentation. Just much better and much less fan fare.

Its just too many things packaged and loaded in that question. Haha

If you are a brilliant engineer, you might build an amazing feature. But if you are a director managing 5 teams of 8 engineers, your decisions affect the output of 40 people. Even a small 1% improvement in their efficiency multiplies across the whole group, resulting in massive financial impact.

If a VP makes a strategic mistake, an entire product line gets canceled, and 200 people lose their jobs. Higher pay is often a premium for taking on that personal and financial risk.

On the flip side, traditional corporate structure puts a cap on individual value. They operate like early 20th century assembly line, where a deeply technical engineer is seen no different than a blue collar drone.

As for the “being seen” situation, its not about being seen by your bosses. Its more about being seen by your family and friends. At least in certain cultures, “man of the house” is expected to weild power over others outside their house too. While some are OK being called potty as long as they’re paid forty, not everyone subscribes to it.

2 things come to my mind

1. Social pressure - There’s a need to be “seen”. Being a technical expert on ground doesn’t make you " seen".
2. Money - The higher you go, the more money you make.

Its a topical ointment sold for less than a dollar. Its a placebo, but smells nice.