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> line workers have valuable and inexpensive insights to offer I saw it more as just a lesson about not overthinking things. Another version of the "During the

> line workers have valuable and inexpensive insights to offer I saw it more as just a lesson about not overthinking things. Another version of the "During the space age Americans spent money developed a special compressed ink pen that could write in space, the Russians used a pencil". I think looking for a simple solution first is always good advice.

mseo 6y ago
That story seems more or less to be a myth, too. And there seems to be a good reason why they used from pencils, which they used in the beginning to pens: "Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips flaked and broke off, drifting in microgravity where they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment. And pencils are flammable--a quality NASA wanted to avoid in onboard objects after the Apollo 1 fire." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-n...
- mdifrgechd 6y ago
  Interesting, I had meant to point out that I had no evidence one way or the other if it was actually true, the point is just the idea of keeping it simple. And your counterpoint about the graphite floating around is a good parable for why seemingly obvious, "clever" solutions often don't actually work, and that armchair critics should not assume the solution team was not smart enough to consider the obvious ideas :)
  - nullsense 6y ago
    Never considered the compressed ink pens that could write in space were an example of Chesterton's Fence. Damn. The fence strikes again.
tuatoru 6y ago
A.K.A. "What an ordinary engineer can do for a dollar, a good engineer can do for ten cents."
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ThrustVectoring 6y ago
I heard that's another myth. The pen was developed privately, NASA and the Russians just bought them at extremely reasonable prices, and they worked better and safer than pencils.

mseo 6y ago

That story seems more or less to be a myth, too. And there seems to be a good reason why they used from pencils, which they used in the beginning to pens: "Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips flaked and broke off, drifting in microgravity where they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment. And pencils are flammable--a quality NASA wanted to avoid in onboard objects after the Apollo 1 fire." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-n...

mdifrgechd 6y ago
Interesting, I had meant to point out that I had no evidence one way or the other if it was actually true, the point is just the idea of keeping it simple. And your counterpoint about the graphite floating around is a good parable for why seemingly obvious, "clever" solutions often don't actually work, and that armchair critics should not assume the solution team was not smart enough to consider the obvious ideas :)
- nullsense 6y ago
  Never considered the compressed ink pens that could write in space were an example of Chesterton's Fence. Damn. The fence strikes again.

tuatoru 6y ago

A.K.A. "What an ordinary engineer can do for a dollar, a good engineer can do for ten cents."

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ThrustVectoring 6y ago

I heard that's another myth. The pen was developed privately, NASA and the Russians just bought them at extremely reasonable prices, and they worked better and safer than pencils.