4 ms·
Just to play Devil's advocate: The answer a bunch of engineers will give to "is it safe to launch?" is always some variant of "no, not completely". The executi
by noonespecial 8y ago
Just to play Devil's advocate: The answer a bunch of engineers will give to "is it safe to launch?" is always some variant of "no, not completely".
The executive needs to be able to determine if the current "no" is "more no" than the usual "no". That might not exactly be straightforward depending on how dysfunctional the relationship between management and engineers had become.
- randcraw 8y agoThese were engineers, not lawyers. Engineers understand what an acceptable margin of error or failure is, and whether that line has been crossed. In this case, they answered "no" because they felt the defined threshold for safety of the O rings had been exceeded, and the risk was now unacceptable. In contrast, lawyers freely play with words as if they have no meaning, because they will claim, "In our legal system, justice is the responsibility of the jury. We lawyers merely serve as opposing advocates. Thus we are obliged to confuse and mislead the jury toward our desired ends, using whatever verbiage / argument best serves our client." That's why I'm an engineer.