HackSpace – September 2019

(Wang) #1
SPARK

BUZZWORDS
The corporate companion (issue 21,
Top Projects) tickled me. I used to
work with a chap like that. I wonder
if management realised how much
money they could have saved if only
they’d reproduced him with an
empty suitcase, a Raspberry Pi, and
a speaker?


Dan
Bath


Ben says: 'xperts have been telling
us for decades that automation is
going to turn the world of work
upside down, so we shouldnũt be too
surprised that a middle manager
can be replaced by a script and a
c computer. %heck out  $its and
a $yteũs ;ou6ube channel for more
excellent daftery like this.


ENGINEERING CULTURE
Project Egress (mentioned in our
interview, issue 20) seems like a niche
thing to focus on, but it shows the
importance placed on safety by any
serious engineer. In aerospace, there’s a
no-blame culture where failures are
reported rather than brushed under the
carpet, and it’s all to make things safer. If
you knew you’d get the sack if you made

a mistake, you’d make every effort to
keep that mistake secret, putting people
in danger. It’s a tragedy that something
got lost between the moon landing and
the Challenger explosion, which was
caused by a known, reported issue with
O-rings that was ignored for years before
it caused the explosion. We often hear
that getting things wrong is essential,
and it is, but only if we learn from it.

4andy
Texas

Ben says: +ndeed so. 9eũve tried to get
a few people to speak in the maga\ine
about failure, but while many are
willing to say Ŭfailure is essentialŭ in the
abstract, not everyone is comfortable
talking about specific mistakes theyũve
made. (ail often, and fail small thatũs
our motto.
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