Sense of impending doom and hoarder issues
28 March 2016(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 28 March 2016 issue)
Dear Kam,
There are so many financial disasters happening at the moment. Didn’t anybody see them early on?
Dr Doom
In your work, have you ever seen a disaster coming, thought about warning people but then didn’t say anything because you were too afraid? Last week saw the death at 89 of Bob Ebeling. He was an engineer working for Nasa and in 1986, he realised that the space shuttle Challenger might blow up during its launch. He and four other engineers told Nasa that cold temperatures at the launch site would compromise certain parts and potentially lead to disaster. Their warnings were ignored and the launch was set to go ahead as scheduled. Ebeling thought about going to Nasa with a rifle and forcing its cancellation but he didn’t. The night before the launch, he told his wife, “It’s going to blow up”. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, Challenger disintegrated in front of millions, including Ebeling. He quit his job shortly after and spent the rest of his life wracked with guilt because he did not avert the disaster he had foretold.
What would you have done? I’m sure you’ve been in a situation where you’ve seen a mistake being made and you’ve thought about warning people. Did you have the courage to stop the machine rolling on? Or did you want to be seen as an enthusiastic team player or even as a meekly respectful feudal yes-man? Or did you assume that the bosses must know what’s best because they simply must be better than you? Did you say anything? Would you say anything?
It strikes me that many disasters happen because of the need to preserve reputation. Pride is perhaps a more dangerous sin than greed. Nasa is a big machine that must keep rolling on. It’s as much entertainment as it is science. Over the years, it has garnered a reputation for engineering skill and after 20 years without a launch pad disaster, Nasa bigwigs presumably felt that they had to continue exhibiting their unquestioned skill on the world stage. The show must go on because the most important commodity of all was at stake: reputation. It takes a big person to halt something as prestigious as a Nasa launch, and so a lowly engineer was ignored and the dice was thrown on the lives of a handful of astronauts.
I read a lot of military history and I keep coming across disasters where somebody decided not to say anything. Not just big disasters like the Fall of Malaya but small ones. During the Second World War, the British built and transported lots of trucks that simply didn’t work. Many people along the chain must have realised the trucks were faulty, but they didn’t say anything or they were ignored. “These trucks don’t work”. “Yes they do”. “Okay”. The military and corporate machines can build up a momentum of their own where an initial poor decision is sent along the chain in the vain hope that nobody will find out and that somehow reputations will be preserved. It really helps if you know the mistake will be bailed out and covered up.
Do I have the courage to stop a disaster? I’m not sure I do. After leaving engineering, Ebeling dedicated himself to preserving a wetlands bird park but he forever chastised himself for not averting the Challenger disaster. Near the end of his life, he told a national radio programme, “I think that’s one of the mistakes that God made. He shouldn’t have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I’m going to ask him, ‘Why me? You picked a loser’.” A listener responded, “God didn’t pick a loser. He picked Bob Ebeling.”
Dear Kam,
I’ve decided to declutter my life by throwing away old stuff, so I threw out my good-for-nothing husband. Best decision I ever made.
Minimise Me
I think I have a serious psychological problem. I’m trying to declutter my life by throwing away old stuff that I know I don’t need anymore. Generally speaking, I don’t think I am a hoarder nor do I have a shopping addiction. I don’t feel the need to own every single Birkin bag in the world and with the present heat wave, I’ve barely used any of my fur coats. But I’ve encountered one area, one specific spot that I just can’t deal with.
I have a drawer filled with old cables that have plugs and bulky electronic bits. I cannot remember what old pieces of equipment they used to be attached to and yet I also cannot bring myself to throw any of them away. Each time I consider throwing away an old cable, a little voice says, “I might need that.” Right now I’m looking at three mouses (or are they “mice”?), one of which I know does not work, and yet I’m thinking I might need them. I have an ancient external hard drive that has a tiny storage capacity and I know I have already copied everything that’s in it, and yet I’m thinking, you just never know. I’m looking at several old laptops, the oldest of which is the size of a small car, one that actually burst into flames as I was using it and three of which were hit by lightning. They don’t work anymore, I know that for an absolute fact but am I going to throw them away? Of course not. I’m holding a cable right now and I wish somebody could tell me what it’s for. It’s so old I think it connects a steam train to a horse. I’m going to keep it. I might need it.
Reprinted with the kind permission of
