Re:Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell
by InitialLastName on Friday December 14, 2018 @08:28AM
(#18680620)
> If a line worker makes a mistake, they will hopefully catch that within hours.
> If an executive makes a mistake, it can be months or years before the problem is obvious
To finish the parable: If an engineer makes a mistake, it might not be noticed until users start to die while operating the product.
Re:Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell
by taneq on Friday December 14, 2018 @11:40AM
(#18682124)
To be fair, very very few engineers are in a position where a mistake would result in sudden unexpected lethality. Usually it's more like "if an engineer makes a mistake, something breaks and a lot of money is wasted, or everything is overengineered and a a lot of money is wasted."
Re:Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell
by InitialLastName on Friday December 14, 2018 @12:33PM
(#18682650)
That's true in general, but it's less overwhelmingly true when the product is 4000 lb and traveling at >60mph. I'm especially concerned that this appears to be a cultural tendency at Tesla, so a large portion of the engineers are likely working close this point. I hope they all are allowed a solid night's sleep before their design reviews; hopefully they can catch each other's mistakes there at least.
I think it's an especially bad idea at high levels of the company, because of the long feedback loops. If a line worker makes a mistake, they will hopefully catch that within hours. If they make a bunch, somebody's going to come talk to them in short order. If an executive makes a mistake, it can be months or years before the problem is obvious. But the more tired I am, the more my focus shifts short-term and the less I notice subtleties and small mistakes. increased error rates and long feedback loops are a very bad combination.
[1] http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres...