King's Men

August, 2007 :

I was rather bemused that the recent bridge failure in the states was spun in terms of "just because the bridge collapsed does not mean it was not safe" which sort of reminds me of my own career in the business "just because the landing gear failed on test does not mean it was not strong enough" and the great Boeing corporation with the "just because the wing failed at 6% lower than the design load does not mean it was not strong enough"

We're all at risk, because we're all human. If we think that the doctor is going to be 100% right in his diagnosis, well, just factor in the human element, six months could be six months, or six days, or the rest of time. They know something, but they don't know everything.

Winging it is part of all our lives, structural engineers, doctors, postmen and brain surgeons. We should learn that this is normal, people will make mistakes and life cannot be programmed like a spreadsheet, macro or remote.

Bridges will fall down, Humpty Dumpty will fall off the wall, and, surprise, kings men and confused horses will be powerless to do anything.

But pick up the pieces.