5 ms·

- Is that a serious question? - Have you ever been part of a group that made a (complicated) mistake? You gain nothing by deluding yourself about the intellig

- Is that a serious question? - Have you ever been part of a group that made a (complicated) mistake? You gain nothing by deluding yourself about the intelligence of an imaginary person (there is no "you") Try being less negative.

mikeash 13y ago
Yes, it's a serious question. My point is that this is not a "complicated" mistake. It's a very, very simple mistake. You're building a curved, reflective surface. First question should be, "what happens when the sun hits it?" Edit: as another commenter pointed out, this isn't even the first time this architect has designed a building that burns things by focusing the sun: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6327766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6327766 Still think my question is bad? Still think this is a "complicated" mistake?
- jacobparker 13y ago
  Why do you think that they didn't think about it? That's pretty silly. I'm guessing that you haven't built tall buildings before (I certainly haven't) but it seems perfectly plausible to me that precautions were taken (coating/shape/etc.) but for various unexpected reasons they were insufficient. Smart people make big things and big things can have big mistakes. It's sad that its so easy for some people to invent unintelligent straw-men to mock in internet comments.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    There's simply no room for the scenario you're proposing. The math of curved reflectors is reasonably simple. What kind of "unexpected reasons" could possibly cause this problem? Maybe this guy did think about it. Maybe he's not stupid? But that's worse for him, because it means he knew what would happen and didn't care. This is on about the same level as dropping a piano from the top of the building and crushing whatever was below at the time. It's so basic that there's no way to say that it was unforeseeable, so either the person dropping the piano failed to think about gravity, or they didn't care about the damage they did.
    - uxp 13y ago
      Maybe this guy did think about it. I'm sure the guy _DID_ think about it, as he was the one that architected the "death ray" building in Las Vegas, as pointed out further up the thread And the crescent-shaped Vdara Hotel and Spa in Las Vegas, designed – astonishingly – by the same architect as the Walkie Talkie, was briefly known as "Death Ray Hotel" when it opened in 2009 after guests complained a 15 sq m area of the pool deck was hot enough to singe their hair and melt plastic. - http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2013/sep/03/walkie-talkie-death-ray-buildings-heat http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2013/sep/0...
    - jacobparker 13y ago
      That's... wow that's a really naive idea of how engineering works. You think that you do a few sin's and cos's and then mistakes just can't happen? That stuff you did in middle-school? I guess civil engineering really needs you. Why are you referring to a singular "this guy"? I hope you understand that the design an construction of a skyscraper involves more than one person at every step. I'm not sure why you are floating the conspiracy theory stuff - I really hope that's some kind of straw-man you're trying to pull, because otherwise... seek help.
      - mikeash 13y ago
        I never said mistakes can't happen. I said that this mistake is an elementary one that should not have happened. Some mistakes are complex and hard. This mistake was trivial. Doubly trivial in that the guy who made the mistake already did it at least once before. I am referring to a singular "this guy" because there's an architect, "this guy", who designed the building. He determined the shape. The shape caused the problem. Yes, there's an army of people involved in the details, but the shape was one guy. What "conspiracy theory stuff" are you talking about?
        notahacker 13y ago
        Most software bugs are, when described to the layman after the fact, pretty elementary, but at least structural engineers usually don't insist the software architect that wrote the initial specs for a project must have been stupid when the version the outsourced dev team releases crashes under certain input parameters.

mikeash 13y ago

Yes, it's a serious question. My point is that this is not a "complicated" mistake. It's a very, very simple mistake. You're building a curved, reflective surface. First question should be, "what happens when the sun hits it?" Edit: as another commenter pointed out, this isn't even the first time this architect has designed a building that burns things by focusing the sun: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6327766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6327766 Still think my question is bad? Still think this is a "complicated" mistake?

jacobparker 13y ago
Why do you think that they didn't think about it? That's pretty silly. I'm guessing that you haven't built tall buildings before (I certainly haven't) but it seems perfectly plausible to me that precautions were taken (coating/shape/etc.) but for various unexpected reasons they were insufficient. Smart people make big things and big things can have big mistakes. It's sad that its so easy for some people to invent unintelligent straw-men to mock in internet comments.
- mikeash 13y ago
  There's simply no room for the scenario you're proposing. The math of curved reflectors is reasonably simple. What kind of "unexpected reasons" could possibly cause this problem? Maybe this guy did think about it. Maybe he's not stupid? But that's worse for him, because it means he knew what would happen and didn't care. This is on about the same level as dropping a piano from the top of the building and crushing whatever was below at the time. It's so basic that there's no way to say that it was unforeseeable, so either the person dropping the piano failed to think about gravity, or they didn't care about the damage they did.
  - uxp 13y ago
    Maybe this guy did think about it. I'm sure the guy _DID_ think about it, as he was the one that architected the "death ray" building in Las Vegas, as pointed out further up the thread And the crescent-shaped Vdara Hotel and Spa in Las Vegas, designed – astonishingly – by the same architect as the Walkie Talkie, was briefly known as "Death Ray Hotel" when it opened in 2009 after guests complained a 15 sq m area of the pool deck was hot enough to singe their hair and melt plastic. - http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2013/sep/03/walkie-talkie-death-ray-buildings-heat http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2013/sep/0...
  - jacobparker 13y ago
    That's... wow that's a really naive idea of how engineering works. You think that you do a few sin's and cos's and then mistakes just can't happen? That stuff you did in middle-school? I guess civil engineering really needs you. Why are you referring to a singular "this guy"? I hope you understand that the design an construction of a skyscraper involves more than one person at every step. I'm not sure why you are floating the conspiracy theory stuff - I really hope that's some kind of straw-man you're trying to pull, because otherwise... seek help.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      I never said mistakes can't happen. I said that this mistake is an elementary one that should not have happened. Some mistakes are complex and hard. This mistake was trivial. Doubly trivial in that the guy who made the mistake already did it at least once before. I am referring to a singular "this guy" because there's an architect, "this guy", who designed the building. He determined the shape. The shape caused the problem. Yes, there's an army of people involved in the details, but the shape was one guy. What "conspiracy theory stuff" are you talking about?
      - notahacker 13y ago
        Most software bugs are, when described to the layman after the fact, pretty elementary, but at least structural engineers usually don't insist the software architect that wrote the initial specs for a project must have been stupid when the version the outsourced dev team releases crashes under certain input parameters.