RussellMc wrote:
> People ALWAYS misbehave. Any industry must factor in men behaving
> badly. And the odd woman as well. If people are willing to falsify
> welding inspection certificates for coolant control valves for nuclear
> power plants just to keep their productivity figures up (and they
> were) then there is not liable to be too many other stupid things they
> won't do if it seems a good idea at the time.

I think anytime one talks about the need to take into account the "human=20
factor", one must remember that the focus should be on the results, and not=
=20
on the means of achieving said results. There are numerous examples where=20
multibillion-dollar agencies were created to enforce regulations comprising=
=20
tens of thousands of pages, that ultimately failed in their objective (one=
=20
recent example has to do with the wonderful deep sea microbe from your othe=
r=20
post). There are numerous case studies[1] and even more numerous anecdotal=
=20
evidence that point to the fact that rules imposed from above are always=20
terribly inefficient at achieving the stated goal.

The biggest problem with rules, is that they remove or weaken the vital=20
safety factor of personal responsibility. "I did it by the book" is a commo=
n=20
defense when things go wrong, and the knee-jerk reaction is to add more=20
rules and procedures to the book, wasting resources and making whatever=20
they're intended to make safer, less safe.

Vitaliy


[1] "Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America" by Philip K.=20
Howard=20

--=20
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