It's interesting, because a few weeks ago there was an article here on HN about some engineer recalling how, because of a blunder, they almost fried a multi-million dollar rover 2 weeks before a time-critical launch. And although the author did casually mention in his introduction that he was already working his second 12 hour work shift of the day, without rest, not once was the thought articulated that, maybe, the root of the entire screw-up was that exhausted and overworked people were working double shifts, setting themselves up for failure.
My comments and thoughts on the article were exactly in line with what you read, which is also interesting. Why did NASA in the 60s and 70s think that they could not afford exhausted and overworked people because they would eventually screw up, while JPL (also NASA) in the 2000s thought it was perfectly OK? Some lessons were clearly unlearned through the years.
It's interesting, because a few weeks ago there was an article here on HN about some engineer recalling how, because of a blunder, they almost fried a multi-million dollar rover 2 weeks before a time-critical launch. And although the author did casually mention in his introduction that he was already working his second 12 hour work shift of the day, without rest, not once was the thought articulated that, maybe, the root of the entire screw-up was that exhausted and overworked people were working double shifts, setting themselves up for failure.
My comments and thoughts on the article were exactly in line with what you read, which is also interesting. Why did NASA in the 60s and 70s think that they could not afford exhausted and overworked people because they would eventually screw up, while JPL (also NASA) in the 2000s thought it was perfectly OK? Some lessons were clearly unlearned through the years.