[csours]

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" - Murphy

"Dubble check that spelIng" - Muphry

Murphy was a rocket engineer. One day their assistant plugged in a non-keyed connector upside down. It was very easy for that to go wrong.

Another time, in another place, a rocket assembly worker hammered in a keyed connector - upside down. It was harder for that to go wrong, but, uh, life finds a way.

[eternityforest]

https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html

[csours]

38. Capabilities drive requirements, regardless of what the systems engineering textbooks say.

I've been thinking about this one lately - What do we want to do? What can we do?

43. You really understand something the third time you see it (or the first time you teach it.)

I'd like to say something like: any learning you do before you start working on something is just familiarization. You can read the book 10 times, but the real learning starts when you pick up the tools.

8. In nature, the optimum is almost always in the middle somewhere. Distrust assertions that the optimum is at an extreme point.

Ah, but the middle of WHAT? How to tell if your data is skewed?

18. Past experience is excellent for providing a reality check. Too much reality can doom an otherwise worthwhile design, though.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/11/28/possible/

> When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Stated otherwise:

    Youth desires growth. Maturity desires survival.

[GuB-42]

"If you design something to be idiot proof, the universe will design a better idiot."

[pornel]

This one is funny, but I don't like this saying.

It may be interpreted in a defeatist way that poka-yoke is pointless, because it can always be defeated, but in reality improvements that save almost all "idiots" are still worthwhile.

An interlock in the microwave doors can't stop a better idiot from disassembling it, but it prevents a lot of everyday mistakes, and that's super helpful.

[GuB-42]

I have always thought of this saying as a warning that just because you have implemented a single layer of interlock doesn't mean that you are done.

For instance, let's say you risk electrocuting yourself if you insert a cable the wrong way. So the designers specify a keyed connector, which is the right thing to do. However, it is good to have in mind that some super-idiot will find a way to insert it the wrong way anyways. And as much as you believe in Darwinism, it may still be a good idea to mitigate the risk of electrocution if it happens.