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The day napoleon was defeated, europe was filled with generals who knew it better and would have won. We know much more in hindsight - and every game is easier

The day napoleon was defeated, europe was filled with generals who knew it better and would have won. We know much more in hindsight - and every game is easier with perfect information. We have send people to space in space-suits, which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. So the art to prepare for such "adventures" is very different to what we imagine. No endless information gathering, instead you select a person that can improvise on the spot with the spotty information you have. You give them tools to improvise: Knifes to cut the spacesuit open, duct-tape and rubber-tourniquets to keep the helmet pressurized. Not great, not terrible. Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned?

krisoft 2y ago
> Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned? That is one of the incomprehensible things for me about the early pioneers of parachute technology. Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower when they could have tested and perfected the jump with a sack of potatoes or sand?
- mordechai9000 2y ago
  > Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower Tangential, but I think there was just one incident, and the guy was considered a crackpot even when he was alive. They thought he was going to throw a dummy off, but against all advice he insisted on doing it himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt
foobarian 2y ago
> which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. Huh. Did we really do this without testing it in a vacuum chamber on the ground first?
- wrycoder 2y ago
  Yeah. The claim doesn’t ring true for NASA in those days.

krisoft 2y ago

> Oh, and in hindsight, do the first spacewalk unmanned? That is one of the incomprehensible things for me about the early pioneers of parachute technology. Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower when they could have tested and perfected the jump with a sack of potatoes or sand?

mordechai9000 2y ago
> Why did people throw themselves off from the Eifel tower Tangential, but I think there was just one incident, and the guy was considered a crackpot even when he was alive. They thought he was going to throw a dummy off, but against all advice he insisted on doing it himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt

foobarian 2y ago

> which when under pressure would extend there arms and were no longer able to fold them back in. We know better now, but back then we didn't know. Huh. Did we really do this without testing it in a vacuum chamber on the ground first?

wrycoder 2y ago
Yeah. The claim doesn’t ring true for NASA in those days.