Slashdot Mirror
Failure Is Always an Option
Logic Bomb writes "The New York Times has a short but elegant op-ed regarding the different perspectives of engineers and managers and the role that plays in accidents like the space shuttle Columbia disaster. It's the sort of article you'll nod all the way through, then print and leave anonymously on your supervisor's desk. Any tech managers in the Slashdot crowd might have some interesting comments on how the right balance is struck." Henry Petroski has written several good books on engineering and failure.
We're gonna need a bunch more astronauts up in here.
I opened this at work, and the title bar reads:
"Failure is always an option - Microsoft Internet Explorer"
Gotta love it!
Acts of massive stupidity are almost never covered by warranty. --me.
I work for an auto supplier. In one of the prototype plants, there was a banner for one of the new car's engineering team.
"Failure is NOT and option."
It struck me as odd at the time. It just doesn't sound like motivation. It strikes me as a negative way of looking at things. There was no "We can succeed together!" or "Hard work will pay off in the end!" Nope. Failure is not an option.
Later I saw the perfect response in a magazine, and was disappointed that the banner was taken down before I could add it.
"Failure is not an option; it comes standard with every vehicle."
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
Actually, he said that "Genius was 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration." He meant that you need just one good idea, and then the persistence to make it work.
I don't think comparing Thomas Edison to a late 80's rock band does either much good. Edison was smart, but he couldn't play the guitar. Tesla can play a good version of Signs, and Getting Better, but to my knowledge, never invented anything that'll change mankind forever.
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance