Although I would guess this happens in a more "low tech" way all the time: It's so easy to switch some lines in an Excel spreadsheet or mess up the formulas (he

Although I would guess this happens in a more "low tech" way all the time: It's so easy to switch some lines in an Excel spreadsheet or mess up the formulas (hey, it happens even to Nobel prize winners) that I bet there are management decisions (including lay-offs) being made based on wrong / "buggy" data all the time... It just takes one overworked consultant and in many cases no one will question the numbers on the PowerPoint graph. While clearly lazy / incompetent people who deserve to be laid off exist, I think one should stay humble and realize that a lot of how one's life works out is pure luck (or a lack of it), after all.