Skip to main content

Falling out


Typically a phrase associated with two individuals or entities falling out of favor with each other.  Could be a personal issue or an organizational issue.  Then there is also nuclear fall out.  As  in  mass extinction.

I am going to expand on a different version.  This pertains to the recent falling out of new(ish) aircraft from  the sky.  I refer to the Boeing 737 Max version of the short haul twin engine planes.  Made by Boeing Aerospace in Seattle  Typically the 737 model has  been a workhorse.  It has served the airline industry well and has reaped great profits for the company and its shareholders.

But the recent discovery that two perfectly new planes of its most recent update - named the 737 MAX -  fell out of the sky killing around 400 people is not good.  In fact it is very bad.

So the share price of the company and its valuation as a consequence fell too.  It is a long post mortem of the situation to determine root cause with black box data and so on  but the finger pointing is now focusing on poorly designed or quality checked software and lack of training on part of Boeing. 

I think in history many changes take place at a pace sometimes unfavorable to those affected but in this case someone lost their lives.  A software issue in an invoicing or shipping or social application has limited impact but the stakes are higher when you entrust your lives to someone.

Lessons will be learned and process modified but capitalism and value of human life will again bang heads as they recalibrate where to  draw the line between profits and safety.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...