←back to thread

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

(mcdreeamiemusings.com)
210 points scapecast | 1 comments | 28 Aug 25 21:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.255s | source
Show context
gjejcjekdnfnwja ◴[29 Aug 25 00:46 UTC] No.45058702[source]▶
As an engineer, that slide looks completely reasonable to me. Its purpose was to communicate technical info, which it did adequately. Keep in mind that the subject matter is highly technical, given that we're literally talking about the Space Shuttle, and more than a high school level of reading comprehension is heavily implied. If the NASA personnel weren't competent enough to review technical data without a pithy summary, that's on them.
replies(12): >>45058746 #>>45058884 #>>45058926 #>>45058940 #>>45058950 #>>45058984 #>>45059072 #>>45059150 #>>45059232 #>>45061181 #>>45061650 #>>45069334 #
1. like_any_other ◴[29 Aug 25 01:52 UTC] No.45059150[source]▶
There's a near infinite quantity of technical information to choose from. The purpose is to emphasize what is important, and de-emphasize the unimportant. When I look at that slide, I see 95% utterly irrelevant information, and a teeny tiny note saying, in vague and indirect language, that the impact was 600x worse than any test.

So on the remote chance you're not just trolling: If you're doing anything safety critical, please quit your job before you kill someone. You vastly overestimate human's (including yours) ability to process information. I am being 100% sincere.