

The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis (1995) - gamble
http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1.htm

======
tel
_Before the city officials left, they commended LeMessurier for his courage
and candor, and expressed a desire to be kept informed as the repair work
progressed. Given the urgency of the situation, that was all they could
reasonably do. "It wasn't a case of 'We caught you, you skunk,'" Nusbaum says.
"It started with a guy who stood up and said, 'I got a problem, I made the
problem, let's fix the problem.' If you're gonna kill a guy like LeMessurier,
why should anybody ever talk?"_

I was waiting for this line throughout the first 2/3rds of the story. The
story began almost framing LeMessurier as criminally incompetent, failing on a
flourish and retiring to his private island to consider it, but he not only
acted with incredible responsibility but discovered flaws in NYC's building
test codes and typical practices concerning joint construction while building
an effective response team to fix it.

I suppose it makes the whole thing more dramatically structured to insinuate a
little bit of character transformation and reveal, but that guy deserves the
kind of acclaim that was reserved until the last few paragraphs.

------
btilly
And this is why I dislike the way that software people misuse the word
"engineer".

Engineer means something. It means, "The person who signs off on the design
and who is liable if the design sucks." If you're not legally liable for your
software, you shouldn't be called a _software engineer_.

In fact in some states misusing the word engineer is against the law. For
instance see <http://www.tbpe.state.tx.us/eng_req.htm> where it says that
using the word engineer in your title is against the law if you are not, in
fact, an engineer.

~~~
jordanb
Engineering is reportedly the world's second oldest profession, yet licensing
has only been around since the mid-19th century, so I don't think it's
particularly fair for the licensing regimes to make a claim of exclusivity on
the word.

I've met many Electrical Engineers over the years. Some of them are licensed
PEs, many are not. The vast majority of the EE projects do not involve a risk
to human life and therefore are not required to use PEs. I've never noticed
any angst on one side or the other over the use of the word "Engineer" to
describe EEs who don't have their PE.

I also have met computer programmers who _do_ write software that involves a
risk to human life. They are every bit as meretricious and dedicated to
building defect-free systems as engineers in any other discipline.

Arguably, there's no pressure to enact a licensing regime because there have
been so few incidents in which software has actually hurt people. That's a
testament to the professionalism of the computer engineers who write life-
critical systems.

~~~
hollerith
>Engineering is reportedly the world's second oldest profession

What an odd thing to say. Reported by whom (besides you)?

Tinkers, blacksmiths and mechanics have been around for a while. Are you
including them in your definition of engineer? (James Watt was a mechanic.)

~~~
blrs
I don't know if engineering is the world's second oldest profession, but its
interesting to know what google says is the world's oldest profession:
prostitution!

~~~
brazzy
Um... that's news to you? I've seen that written as a cliché dozens of times.

------
alexkearns
Beautifully-written article - wouldn't usually spend half an hour reading
about construction engineering but the article really drew me in.

~~~
stretchwithme
Agreed. I read the whole thing too.

A big, career threatening problem occurred, but instead of taking the easy way
out, the architect did the hard, right thing and it all worked out.

We all have these moments when we have to choose between cowardice and
courage. This is a good example to keep in mind.

~~~
evangineer
A gripping read indeed! I like how the engineer went to use the story as a
case study to his students to show that you have an obligation to do the right
thing and that there doesn't have to be harmful consequences for the
whistleblower.

It seems to me, that everybody involved including the Citicorp executives
demonstrated huge amounts of character and integrity which says a lot about
the corporate culture of 1978. I don't imagine the current top ranks at
Citicorp would be so exemplary in their behaviour.

~~~
jordanb
It also demonstrates the view people had of commercial banks in the late 1970s
that the public would buy an explanation like "we're the type of people who
wear a belt and suspenders."

If any bank tried to claim today that they're so incredibly, overbearingly
cautious, they'd mocked as being obviously full of shit.

------
norova
Use the link below to view the story in a more readable form:

[http://viewtext.org/article?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.duke.edu%2F...](http://viewtext.org/article?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.duke.edu%2F~hpgavin%2Fce131%2Fciticorp1.htm&format=)
[viewtext.org]

------
joezydeco
One nuance of the story that I think is the most interesting is that the
problem wasn't discovered until LeMessurier decided to look back on his
completed design and re-review some parts of it out of intellectual curiosity.

Sometimes when I'm nostalgic, vain, or super-bored I'll go back and read code
that I've written. Sometimes I find something that I've forgotten and once in
a while I'll find bugs. Having that curiosity (or is it just excessive pride?)
is a good thing in my opinion.

------
d_c
Thank god for readability.

~~~
whimsy
Don't thank God. Thank Arc90.

