4 ms·

I've heard this effect put into more positive terms: If the ship is on a good course, making it hard to steer also makes it hard to sink.

__alexs 5y ago
There are no courses that don't eventually intersect with land, or other ships...
- WJW 5y ago
  Other ships, who can say. But if you are at about 60 degrees south of the equator and keep going due west (or east, of course) you can keep going forever without ever hitting land. You'll pass just below the southernmost point of Chile and just above the nothernmost parts of Antartica.
  - autosharp 5y ago
    > if you are at about 60 degrees south of the equator and keep going due west (or east, of course) you can keep going forever without ever hitting land. No, this requires you to constantly steer left (or right, of course). So you are not traveling on a straight line.
    - WJW 5y ago
      Same loxodrome though.
    - lupire 5y ago
      But it's a constant steering angle, right? Just hold the wheel in place. (Of course in real life that wouldn't work so simply.)
- lumost 5y ago
  There’s a quote attributed to adam smith “there’s a lot of ruin in a nation”. A large enterprise such as Google, GE, or IBM can be poorly managed for decades before being economically forced to change. I observed a team making 25 MM per engineer in a large company that made one change per year. There are products at google that require 400+ pages of documentation/proof to change.
  - lupire 5y ago
    > 400+ pages of documentation/proof to change. Like what?
- wolfram74 5y ago
  I wasn't sure if there literally wasn't a great circle route that didn't include land in it. I am moderately surprised to find out there isn't[0]. But I would be more surprised if there wasn't some line of latitude you could follow around antartica that never hits land. [0]https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/30/143150/computer-scientists-have-found-the-longest-straight-line-you-could-sail-without-hitting/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/30/143150/computer-...
heurisko 5y ago
If the analogy is continued, it might also be harder to steer away from an iceberg.
- spdionis 5y ago
  Which is probably an intended part of the analogy. On the other hand in these orgs you have people crying "iceberg!" all the time.
- 83457 5y ago
  But they are so big and strong that there would be no danger from an iceber... oh
- michaelcampbell 5y ago
  So many examples of this. Blockbuster vs NetFlix seems like one.
  - cestith 5y ago
    That wasn't necessarily inability to steer. Blockbuster had an opportunity to own Netflix at one point and said no. Just like Docker was given a chance to steward Kubernetes and decided to compete against it instead.
  - beerandt 5y ago
    Blockbuster v Netflix is odd though, in that Blockbuster actually did pivot to the DVD by mail subscriptions really well. Well at least operationally it was a good product, and imo better than Netflix's, but I have no idea if helped or hurt them financially. But Blockbuster's established sources for content/disks should have been an advantage against the stories of Netflix having to go buy retail copies of movies in cases of uncooperative distributors. It was just Phase 2 and moving to streaming where they fell so far behind. (Plus Redbox's uprising didn't help, which is a separate failure to pivot.)
tapland 5y ago
Until something big happens (Kodak?) But failing can be good and bad.

__alexs 5y ago

There are no courses that don't eventually intersect with land, or other ships...

WJW 5y ago
Other ships, who can say. But if you are at about 60 degrees south of the equator and keep going due west (or east, of course) you can keep going forever without ever hitting land. You'll pass just below the southernmost point of Chile and just above the nothernmost parts of Antartica.
- autosharp 5y ago
  > if you are at about 60 degrees south of the equator and keep going due west (or east, of course) you can keep going forever without ever hitting land. No, this requires you to constantly steer left (or right, of course). So you are not traveling on a straight line.
  - WJW 5y ago
    Same loxodrome though.
  - lupire 5y ago
    But it's a constant steering angle, right? Just hold the wheel in place. (Of course in real life that wouldn't work so simply.)
lumost 5y ago
There’s a quote attributed to adam smith “there’s a lot of ruin in a nation”. A large enterprise such as Google, GE, or IBM can be poorly managed for decades before being economically forced to change. I observed a team making 25 MM per engineer in a large company that made one change per year. There are products at google that require 400+ pages of documentation/proof to change.
- lupire 5y ago
  > 400+ pages of documentation/proof to change. Like what?
wolfram74 5y ago
I wasn't sure if there literally wasn't a great circle route that didn't include land in it. I am moderately surprised to find out there isn't[0]. But I would be more surprised if there wasn't some line of latitude you could follow around antartica that never hits land. [0]https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/30/143150/computer-scientists-have-found-the-longest-straight-line-you-could-sail-without-hitting/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/30/143150/computer-...

heurisko 5y ago

If the analogy is continued, it might also be harder to steer away from an iceberg.

spdionis 5y ago
Which is probably an intended part of the analogy. On the other hand in these orgs you have people crying "iceberg!" all the time.
83457 5y ago
But they are so big and strong that there would be no danger from an iceber... oh
michaelcampbell 5y ago
So many examples of this. Blockbuster vs NetFlix seems like one.
- cestith 5y ago
  That wasn't necessarily inability to steer. Blockbuster had an opportunity to own Netflix at one point and said no. Just like Docker was given a chance to steward Kubernetes and decided to compete against it instead.
- beerandt 5y ago
  Blockbuster v Netflix is odd though, in that Blockbuster actually did pivot to the DVD by mail subscriptions really well. Well at least operationally it was a good product, and imo better than Netflix's, but I have no idea if helped or hurt them financially. But Blockbuster's established sources for content/disks should have been an advantage against the stories of Netflix having to go buy retail copies of movies in cases of uncooperative distributors. It was just Phase 2 and moving to streaming where they fell so far behind. (Plus Redbox's uprising didn't help, which is a separate failure to pivot.)

tapland 5y ago

Until something big happens (Kodak?) But failing can be good and bad.