HackSpace – September 2019

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.