

The Turn (1993) - js2
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/langew/turn.htm

======
brazzy
> Veterans of the military and the airmail service still insisted they could
> fly "by the seat of the pants," and they thought less of those who could
> not. Their self-deception now seems all the more profound because the
> solution to the problem of flying in clouds and darkness -- a gyroscope
> adapted to flying -- was already widely available.

Reminds me quite a bit of programmers who insist that any formal developments
process (including lightweight agile ones) is a crutch needed only by mediocre
developers (which they of course don't need) and invented by companies who
can't hire only the best (where they of course would never work).

~~~
Dylan16807
Why in the world would it remind you of that? A development process is just a
way to improve collaboration over basic informal communication. Without
gyroscopes you are literally incapable of sensing your orientation. It would
be like being unable to see anyone else's code.

~~~
brazzy
It's the reaction of "veterans" that reminds me of it, the conviction that
their vaguely-defined "skill" trumps everything - not the details of the thing
they're rejecting.

Though there are similarities in that area as well: without any kind of
coordinated planning, measurement of progress, and feedback-gathering, you're
unable to see in what state the project really is, whether you're able to meet
deadlines, stay in budget, and actually building the right thing.

~~~
Dylan16807
But they do have skill. And you can plan, measure, and get feedback without
any kind of formal process. The similarities are shallow and misleading.

~~~
brazzy
Everyone believes themselves to be skilled, and the strength of belief
correlates not much with actual skill. But even those who are still need to
coordinate with others.

And while you can do all that without a formal process, can you do it
repeatably (so results are comparable and composable) across time and team
members? Can you be sure you won't forget doing some of it when you're busy?
How often and when should you ideally do it?

Once you've thought about that, discussed it with your team members and come
to an agreement with them, what you have is a formal process. The only thing
left to do is to write it down so you'll still remember it next month.

------
lizzard
His book _The Outlaw Sea_ was extremely good -- going into some depth about
the ways that government try but have not succeeded in regulating the ocean in
the ways that they control law on land.

~~~
sootzoo
He's a great writer especially on aviation. For example, his writeup of the
mid-air collision of an Embraer regional jet and a 737 over Brazil
(<http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/air_crash200901>) was nothing
short of fantastic. It's well worth a read.

------
ErikAugust
<http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006784.html> Here's a video of iced
tea in a barrel roll.

~~~
ggchappell
Nice.

BTW, the relevant scene starts at 2:08.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBcapxGHjE&t=2m8s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBcapxGHjE&t=2m8s)

------
noonespecial
_If he had dangled the pen from a string, it would have hung at a ninety-
degree angle with respect to the tilted floor._

For enormous fun, dangle your earbuds from their cables during the large
maneuvers during take-off and landing. The wires seem to have a life all their
own. People around you will stare, mesmerized. For some reason you really seem
to want that wire dangling to match what you see outside.

~~~
brianberns
The whole point is that the earbuds _won't_ seem to have a life all their own.
They'll continue to point straight to the floor of the plane, no matter what
the wings are doing relative to the earth out the window.

~~~
noonespecial
You would think that, but in practice the effect is weird. You want them to
point at the ground outside your window. When they don't its very strange. I
guess its why the people in the plane lean into the bank even when they should
be feeling it to be unnecessary.

Edit: On thinking about it, it might be double strange because you're
"feeling" the bank from what you see outside and feeling the
accelerations/decelerations (which may or may not match the plane's pitch
which you also get from sight) that big planes do as they fly their patterns.
These run together in your brain. It sometimes responds to pitch seen outside,
sometimes to acceleration you feel, but never to the roll you expect from what
you see. So it seems oddly, randomly broken.

------
zwass
The Bob Hoover maneuver: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BpzIY62xE>

------
rosser
(1993)

~~~
js2
Oops. Looks like the mods added it.

Also, apparently previously discussed -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1503860>

~~~
Dylan16807
I'm glad that set of comments called out the pendulum staying in a plane as
being wrong. Like the article says about gyroscopes, tilted pendulums move in
an odd but predictable way. For example, a pendulum set up on the surface of
the earth rotates at a speed proportional to the sine of the latitude.

