9 ms·

Tickling the dragons tail seems very appropriate. I'd be sweating bullets manaually adjusting a nuke core with a screw driver.

errantspark 7y ago
Not to advocate risky behavior, but this doesn't surprise me at all. Experience increases the perception of safety at a rate faster than actual safety. Every place I've worked where you could put yourself, expensive equipment or customer satisfaction in danger to make something easier for yourself people would do it. Deploying straight to prod, doing surgery on live databases, soldering on equipment plugged into mains, servicing a UPS without disconnecting 48V worth of lead acid batteries (that was one HELL of an arc weld). The corners people will cut never cease to amaze me.
- lucidstack 7y ago
  Good old normalization of deviance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25742063/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25742063/
- MaysonL 7y ago
  This is why power paper cutters have two widely separated on buttons.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  > Experience increases the perception of safety at a rate faster than actual safety. I learned to drive nine months ago, and I've been watching myself do this every time I get on the highway in the past few months. Even knowing that I'm doing it, it's hard to avoid.
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    I learned to drive 40 years ago. Watching yourself drive and noticing situations where you're taking unneeded risks is what separates good drivers from mediocre ones. Never assume you can't do better.
- bsder 7y ago
  > soldering on equipment plugged into mains o_O!!!!!!! I've cut a LOT of corners, but that one is just insane...
  - hinkley 7y ago
    "But this is the ground wire so it's okay". Hint: Lots of people have daisy chained outlets backward, and lots of AC circuits still work with the wiring reversed. Pretty sure we found one where they had reversed them twice, so black was hot at the end of the circuit but not in the middle.
    - xyzzy_plugh 7y ago
      I have no idea why I never considered this possibility. That's terrifying.
      - firethief 7y ago
        I inspected all my outlets after finding out what 60VAC feels like going up one arm and down the other (touched two server cases, one on a grounded outlet, the other floating). I found several suprises: a knob and tube circuit had been "upgraded" to 3-prong faceplates without wiring the ground to _anything_, and some outlets were backwards. You never know if it's the work of a DIY electrician unless you get it checked out.
  - protomyth 7y ago
    Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. It was interesting seeing my Dad go from confused to realization to angry without having caused the transition. Getting that fixed was an exercise in careful. As Dad is fond of saying “I’m amazed you thought of it and appalled you actually did it.”
    - joefourier 7y ago
      Funnily enough that's a normal practice in the UK/Ireland. In all the places I've lived, washer and dryer are plugged straight into a regular outlet (sometimes with an extension cord if it can't be reached). Makes me wonder, why not make a 110v washing machine and save the trouble of having both 110v and 220v at home?
- ClassyJacket 7y ago
  The most common examples are probably driving and smoking.
- Lowkeyloki 7y ago
  I used the phrase "tickling the dragon's tail" recently when I ran some maintenance code in production without testing it first (because there really wasn't a way to test it outside of production, long series of failures to get to this point, I know). I used to call it cowboy coding. FWIW, this was the first time I'd done something like that in about 5 years and I felt horrible during and afterwards even though nothing went wrong. I felt like I should have given up a sobriety coin or something. Feels bad. Like falling off the wagon.
  - protomyth 7y ago
    I think it’s a good thing that you feel a bit unsettled. It shows you have the professionalism to know it was a bad plan, but you also had the knowledge to know sometimes a bad plan is the only plan you have. Don’t dwell on it though, that would be unhealthy since you already know the lesson of the experience.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  Or remove half of the bolts from top to bottom of a crane (instead of one level at a time) to speed up its deconstruction by a couple of hours? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_crane_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_crane_collapse https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-caused-seattle-crane-to-collapse-experts-say-a-common-practice-is-likely-cause/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-caused-seattl...
shdh 7y ago
Hollywood portrayal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh89h8FxNhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh89h8FxNhQ

errantspark 7y ago

Not to advocate risky behavior, but this doesn't surprise me at all. Experience increases the perception of safety at a rate faster than actual safety. Every place I've worked where you could put yourself, expensive equipment or customer satisfaction in danger to make something easier for yourself people would do it. Deploying straight to prod, doing surgery on live databases, soldering on equipment plugged into mains, servicing a UPS without disconnecting 48V worth of lead acid batteries (that was one HELL of an arc weld). The corners people will cut never cease to amaze me.

lucidstack 7y ago
Good old normalization of deviance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25742063/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25742063/
MaysonL 7y ago
This is why power paper cutters have two widely separated on buttons.
PhasmaFelis 7y ago
> Experience increases the perception of safety at a rate faster than actual safety. I learned to drive nine months ago, and I've been watching myself do this every time I get on the highway in the past few months. Even knowing that I'm doing it, it's hard to avoid.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I learned to drive 40 years ago. Watching yourself drive and noticing situations where you're taking unneeded risks is what separates good drivers from mediocre ones. Never assume you can't do better.
bsder 7y ago
> soldering on equipment plugged into mains o_O!!!!!!! I've cut a LOT of corners, but that one is just insane...
- hinkley 7y ago
  "But this is the ground wire so it's okay". Hint: Lots of people have daisy chained outlets backward, and lots of AC circuits still work with the wiring reversed. Pretty sure we found one where they had reversed them twice, so black was hot at the end of the circuit but not in the middle.
  - xyzzy_plugh 7y ago
    I have no idea why I never considered this possibility. That's terrifying.
    - firethief 7y ago
      I inspected all my outlets after finding out what 60VAC feels like going up one arm and down the other (touched two server cases, one on a grounded outlet, the other floating). I found several suprises: a knob and tube circuit had been "upgraded" to 3-prong faceplates without wiring the ground to _anything_, and some outlets were backwards. You never know if it's the work of a DIY electrician unless you get it checked out.
- protomyth 7y ago
  Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. It was interesting seeing my Dad go from confused to realization to angry without having caused the transition. Getting that fixed was an exercise in careful. As Dad is fond of saying “I’m amazed you thought of it and appalled you actually did it.”
  - joefourier 7y ago
    Funnily enough that's a normal practice in the UK/Ireland. In all the places I've lived, washer and dryer are plugged straight into a regular outlet (sometimes with an extension cord if it can't be reached). Makes me wonder, why not make a 110v washing machine and save the trouble of having both 110v and 220v at home?
ClassyJacket 7y ago
The most common examples are probably driving and smoking.
Lowkeyloki 7y ago
I used the phrase "tickling the dragon's tail" recently when I ran some maintenance code in production without testing it first (because there really wasn't a way to test it outside of production, long series of failures to get to this point, I know). I used to call it cowboy coding. FWIW, this was the first time I'd done something like that in about 5 years and I felt horrible during and afterwards even though nothing went wrong. I felt like I should have given up a sobriety coin or something. Feels bad. Like falling off the wagon.
- protomyth 7y ago
  I think it’s a good thing that you feel a bit unsettled. It shows you have the professionalism to know it was a bad plan, but you also had the knowledge to know sometimes a bad plan is the only plan you have. Don’t dwell on it though, that would be unhealthy since you already know the lesson of the experience.
jacobolus 7y ago
Or remove half of the bolts from top to bottom of a crane (instead of one level at a time) to speed up its deconstruction by a couple of hours? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_crane_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_crane_collapse https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-caused-seattle-crane-to-collapse-experts-say-a-common-practice-is-likely-cause/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-caused-seattl...

shdh 7y ago

Hollywood portrayal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh89h8FxNhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh89h8FxNhQ