These are the stories that non-engineers like to tell themselves to feel smarter. Especially managers like to think they have more common sense than engineers.

These are the stories that non-engineers like to tell themselves to feel smarter. Especially managers like to think they have more common sense than engineers. But reality is that engineers are the ones who know most about the subject, they know the details how everything interacts with each other. I had meetings with managers that thought their common sense could help me, only ending up me explaining the most basic of concepts to them. Same with the NASA pen story vs pencil. Most projects fail because of stupid managers that don't trust their experts. Not because engineers can't see the forest through the trees.