[ATM] Hubble mirror was a people failure, not only a test failure

[gary at gfphoto.com]

Richard wrote:
>> You seem to have no respect for your
elders, those have gone before, solved all of the problems, and authorized
the publication of authoritative books by recognized authorities. Clearly
there is nothing left to invent or experiment on; it's all been done. 
>>I am an officer of a political club and am member of my county and state
party committees. Nobody there under 50, very few under 60.

If you're going to decry the "recognized authorities" you shouldn't be surprised if young people don't want to spend their time with them...

Young people aren't "all" "into tattoos, nose rings, and gangstah
culture." Just an awful lot of them.

"And they don't vote." If they did they might vote to outlaw political clubs and county and state committees...be careful what you wish for; if your club had a majority of sensible, intelligent, creative, thoughtful 25 year-olds they might just not want to do things the way the older folks want...

Gary



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard [mailto:richard1941 at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 1, 2012 11:30 PM
To: ''Mel Bartels'', atm at atmlist.net
Subject: Re: [ATM] Hubble mirror was a people failure, not only a test failure

What you say is very provocative. You seem to have no respect for your elders, those have gone before, solved all of the problems, and authorized the publication of authoritative books by recognized authorities. Clearly there is nothing left to invent or experiment on; it's all been done. Excuse me while I pour my babbitt into my 1931 ford axle. All I have to do is figure out how to mount the concrete pier on the trailer. . . . Richard -----Original Message----- From: atm-bounces at atmlist.net [mailto:atm-bounces at atmlist.net] On Behalf Of Mel Bartels Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 8:29 PM To: atm at atmlist.net Subject: [ATM] Hubble mirror was a people failure, not only a test failure In all my years of leading and managing software projects, I've never seen a technical problem that didn't have a person issue as the real problem. As technical as I am, as much as I believe in beautiful design and great code, I've always concentrated on solving the people problem. And guess what? The technical problem has always simply solved itself. I've noticed that 'smart technical people' are among the worse when it comes to group speak and allowing themselves to miss the obvious. Magicians say the smarter the scientists claim they are, the easier they are to fool. It goes without saying that in our hobby I see superstitions and more than one influential person more interested in being a quasi cult leader than being inquisitive and experimental. You want to attract young bright people to our hobby? Then make it exciting, exploratory, experimental, welcoming. How does amateur telescope making look from the wonderful perspectives of robotics and smart devices? How would we use telescopes and what would they be and look like? As often as I point out how incredible the Dobsonian is from a product perspective (simply, elegant, does one thing compellingly well, doesn't try to do anything else), it's 50 years old - almost two generations. Come on dudes and dudettes! How about a little fresh think! Mel Bartels >>> "Well it turned out that was wrong. But they rationalised, rationalised, rationalised. What kind of minds does a project like Hubble attract? The best. So [Allen] said, 'I want to understand why the smart guys working on it didn't go dig in and find out what's going on.'" <<< _______________________________________________ ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/