CNN, Feynman and the Challenger disaster

What Hacker News said

Recommends prasadjoglekar · 2025-08 · on “Starship's Tenth Flight Test”

It was reusable, but way over promised. Don't take my word for it. Richard Feynman served on the Challenger commission and very nicely summarizes the difference between Apollo and Space Shuttle. [this video] SpaceX is doing stuff that's just beyond the scope of what's deemed conventionally realistic. That's achievable and pushes us forward.

Cites stepanhruda · 2016-01 · on “The result would be a catastrophe (1985)”

Here is Richard Feynman talking about the issues [this video] Seems not very different from how companies are managed 30 years later.

Cites pdkl95 · 2016-02 · on “Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint”

> the absence of known danger is not the same as safety. Feynman had some interesting comments on this problem regarding NASA's "it worked ok last time" approach to risk assessment before the Challenger Disaster. [this video]

Cites pdkl95 · 2017-07 · on “A hacker stole $31M of Ether – how it happened, and what it means for Ethereum”

> the model of 'public by default, opt in for security' is fundamentally daft in this context. It's daft in most contexts, and is one of the largest sources of security problems. If your design requires enumerating badness [1], you're doing it wrong. > from: [LINK] >> Just about every ICO, trust and company used the Parity multisig wallet, and that code was considered well-tested. -sigh- This is, unfortunately, a common problem. "It worked ok the last N times" and "It passed a lot of tests" do not mean it's bug-free and safe to use. Richard Feynman was right during the Challenger investigation when he called this a childish attitude . (He was also right in not wanting to assign blame, instea