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Re:Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014) by ggm on Saturday October 03, 2020 @07:11PM (#24675361)
The one legged stool was A COST SAVING DEVICE - a better fix was to have three people on shift at a given point in time, all with different shift starts.

This isn't a safety story, it's the least cost barely safe story.

Re:Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014) by Retric on Saturday October 03, 2020 @11:10PM (#24676254)
Having three people watching a single thermometer invites distraction as they start talking to each other. Redundancy is great for electronic sensors, but people doing critical though boring work sometimes are best left alone.

That said, for more demanding tasks, alternating between two people over a shift can be incredibly valuable.