Sometimes there really is method in their madness

[Mike Holmes]

On 08/05/2012 15:56, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:

> Yeah, I've actually heard that same explanation elsewhere, and I find it pretty convincing.
> I actually use it as an example with my students when attempting to explain the importance of
> getting the formatting in their bibliographies/citations/etc. correct: "This is the first thing
> any examiner is gonna look at. If you get it right, they will assume you are not completely
> hopeless, and will treat the rest of your product reasonably fairly; if you get it wrong,
> they will assume you are an idiot, and treat the rest of your product accordingly."

I always bin a CV at the second spelling or punctuation error (and I 
often worry I'm getting too tolerant in giving one free). If someone 
can't pay attention to detail on something as important as a CV, I'd be 
stupid to expect them to pay attention to detail while working for me.

Checklists aren't always written for idiots (stupid people don't tend to 
become pilots for the obvious reason), but when they are, it does make 
sense to be curious as to whether they were followed or not.

Too often, people who skip on the checklists are fatally dangerous. 
Here's one just this week who may have skipped a "hang test". A little 
reading between the lines suggests that a hang test is where the 
customer lifts their feet from the ground to discover whether they'd 
detach from the aircraft. This is information which is far better 
discovered while on the ground than while airborne.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/04/30/bc-hang-glider-death.html

Any kind of flying is replete with checklists, because it's what people 
know is so that will kill them and many items on checklists simply 
confirm that what's supposed to be so, is so. Just ask anyone who knew 
the chamber was empty when they started to clean their gun.

> I'm not sure how much the "Van Halen Brown M&M" story helps get that point across,
> but it entertains me at least, so it stays in the "educational set-list".

There's a great deal of evidence to support the idea that people 
remember what entertains them far better than what does not. Even were 
the story untrue, it still elicits an important lesson in creatively 
producing a visual signal regarding checklist compliance.

FoFP

P.S: Looking down the barrel is a poor way to check whether the chamber 
is empty. The failure mode is left as an exercise for the reader. I 
tried this during my first paintball match, to the hilarity of everyone 
present. Fortunately for my eyesight, I was wearing my goggles.




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