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I had a group working under me who were troubleshooting an intermittent fault in some control circruitry for a nuclear reactor, and they started phoning it in j

I had a group working under me who were troubleshooting an intermittent fault in some control circruitry for a nuclear reactor, and they started phoning it in just like this when they realized that there was only enough appetite to describe and propose weird problems to the boss once each day. After about a week, the goal became achievement of the daily failure with a minimum of preparation. It was a highly solvable problem, but they were all avoiding the necessary step of serious research.

gms7777 3y ago
That's reasonable. I think being in the academic world, I don't see it as often because daily achievement isn't really rewarded -- it's all about individual output in the longer term (manuscripts, grants, etc. ), and every "failure" feels like a step away from having a completed manuscript, even when it's necessary. If anything, it's why a lot of academics tend to avoid the "fail fast" techniques, because at a daily level, it feels more productive to be working towards a solution (even if it is a waste of time) than shooting down potential solution after solution.