Intelligence has nothing to do with it. All you have to do is look at the space shuttle design. It was a seriously flawed concept. I did not understand how that concept could have been pushed forward. So I emailed Homer Hickam about it, wondering what I missed. He said I was right, and that he'd also thought the concept was completely wrong. Events later showed both of us were right in every aspect. (I had not expected a reply from him, but he was very nice to do so!)
The Fukushima reactor and the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig were also designed and built by experienced, intelligent people, but they both could have used experience from the airline people. Both had multiple single points of failure, which failed, and none of those points had to be there. I see this again in the auto industry, in particular Toyota's onboard computer.
The software industry is also full of the smartest people I know. Yet I've been able to bring in ideas from airliner design that are of significant benefit. For example, "defensive programming" comes from a talk I gave in the 1990s.
I recommend James Burke's "Connections" series. It is a history of technology, on the theme of how outsiders repeatedly spark advances and innovation by seeing things that the insiders don't see.
I'm an outsider as far as space probes go. I know little about the details. But that also means I am not immersed in the conventional wisdom that develops around the insiders of every profession, and sometimes and outsider can see things the insiders don't.
I don't claim I'm always right. But all I ask is to keep an open mind. Sometimes an outsider with experience in another industry can make a connection.
https://flyingbarron.medium.com/the-james-webb-space-telesco...
so it's not such a ridiculous idea after all.
Intelligence has nothing to do with it. All you have to do is look at the space shuttle design. It was a seriously flawed concept. I did not understand how that concept could have been pushed forward. So I emailed Homer Hickam about it, wondering what I missed. He said I was right, and that he'd also thought the concept was completely wrong. Events later showed both of us were right in every aspect. (I had not expected a reply from him, but he was very nice to do so!)
The Fukushima reactor and the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig were also designed and built by experienced, intelligent people, but they both could have used experience from the airline people. Both had multiple single points of failure, which failed, and none of those points had to be there. I see this again in the auto industry, in particular Toyota's onboard computer.
The software industry is also full of the smartest people I know. Yet I've been able to bring in ideas from airliner design that are of significant benefit. For example, "defensive programming" comes from a talk I gave in the 1990s.
I recommend James Burke's "Connections" series. It is a history of technology, on the theme of how outsiders repeatedly spark advances and innovation by seeing things that the insiders don't see.
I'm an outsider as far as space probes go. I know little about the details. But that also means I am not immersed in the conventional wisdom that develops around the insiders of every profession, and sometimes and outsider can see things the insiders don't.
I don't claim I'm always right. But all I ask is to keep an open mind. Sometimes an outsider with experience in another industry can make a connection.