nanog mailing list archives
Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion
From: Bill Woodcock <woody () pch net>
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:19:29 -0800 (PST)
The connection may not be immediately apparent, but I think Philip Greenspun's article critiquing Malcolm Gladwell's musings on cranial metrics etc. has some bearing: http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/foreign-airline-safety ...or is at least an interesting read. In observing network operations screw-ups, I've seen a lot that were either caused by, or prolonged by, a culture-of-emergency. Young guys drinking way too much coffee, working a service window at two in the morning, believing they've seen something that needs to be fixed, and winging it. In building networks, I've tried very hard to engineer things such that the operating procedure for dealing with an "emergency" is to note its existence and place it in a work queue to be dealt with by people who are on a day shift, have just come in from a full night's sleep, and are working in a team with senior people who can assist with anything tricky, and make sure that junior folks are following proceedures that have been worked out in advance by people who had plenty of time in a lab, and plenty of time to choose the best of many alternative procedures. In my experience, reducing the frequency of emergencies is most beneficial in reducing the frequency of outages. :-) -Bill
Current thread:
- RE: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion, (continued)
- RE: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion George Bonser (Dec 25)
- RE: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Vadim Antonov (Dec 25)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Michael Sinatra (Dec 28)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Owen DeLong (Dec 28)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Robert Boyle (Dec 28)
- BCPs, Exercising emergency process et al Jared Mauch (Dec 25)
- Re: BCPs, Exercising emergency process et al Sean Donelan (Dec 26)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion bross (Dec 25)
- Message not available
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Robert Boyle (Dec 26)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion David Hiers (Dec 28)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Bill Woodcock (Dec 28)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Owen DeLong (Dec 28)
- RE: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Frank Bulk (Dec 25)
- Re: Revisiting the Aviation Safety vs. Networking discussion Joe Provo (Dec 25)