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Surely this is a variation of this anecdote attributed to IBM's Watson https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13419313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13419

Surely this is a variation of this anecdote attributed to IBM's Watson https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13419313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13419313 "> A young executive had made some bad decisions that cost the company several million dollars. He was summoned to Watson’s office, fully expecting to be dismissed. As he entered the office, the young executive said, “I suppose after that set of mistakes you will want to fire me.” Watson was said to have replied, > “Not at all, young man, we have just spent a couple of million dollars educating you.” [1]"

hutzlibu 3y ago
Thanks, I knew I heard that story somewhere before. (but I would not rule it out, that recent CEOs heard and learned from that episode as well)
creshal 3y ago
A variant is in From the Earth to the Moon, where a junior engineer at Grumman confesses messing up vital calculations for the Lunar Lander to his boss, and finishes with "So… I guess I'll go clean out my desk." "What for?" "I figure you're gonna fire me now." The boss's response makes a lot more sense than the usual fluff, though: "If I fire you now, the next guy to make a mistake won't admit it and we won't find out about it until it's too late."
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  I wonder how much of those stories are rather wishful thinking of how it should work and not how it does work, when a major screw up happened and some heads need to roll for the sake of it.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    I wonder how would the boss explain it to his bosses/shareholders. Was that totally a known possible outcome that merely surfaced by chance and subsequently handled without issues under his leadership, or...?
    - creshal 3y ago
      Apollo was very much pushing the envelope of bleeding edge technology, while the bosses were probably not too happy, it was far from the only occurrence, and didn't threaten the contract.
xp84 3y ago
In the context of “suspected AI” I at first thought you meant a different Watson!

hutzlibu 3y ago

Thanks, I knew I heard that story somewhere before. (but I would not rule it out, that recent CEOs heard and learned from that episode as well)

creshal 3y ago

A variant is in From the Earth to the Moon, where a junior engineer at Grumman confesses messing up vital calculations for the Lunar Lander to his boss, and finishes with "So… I guess I'll go clean out my desk." "What for?" "I figure you're gonna fire me now." The boss's response makes a lot more sense than the usual fluff, though: "If I fire you now, the next guy to make a mistake won't admit it and we won't find out about it until it's too late."

hutzlibu 3y ago
I wonder how much of those stories are rather wishful thinking of how it should work and not how it does work, when a major screw up happened and some heads need to roll for the sake of it.
- numpad0 3y ago
  I wonder how would the boss explain it to his bosses/shareholders. Was that totally a known possible outcome that merely surfaced by chance and subsequently handled without issues under his leadership, or...?
  - creshal 3y ago
    Apollo was very much pushing the envelope of bleeding edge technology, while the bosses were probably not too happy, it was far from the only occurrence, and didn't threaten the contract.

xp84 3y ago

In the context of “suspected AI” I at first thought you meant a different Watson!