Increasing risk appetite is vital for progress
Speaking at a panel discussion at the Institute of Directors Scotland’s annual conference, the chairman of Dundee’s 4J Studios criticised the risk adverse nature of Scottish society.He said: “We have got into a comfort zone of how we can remove risk from every part of our lives – our business, our personal lives, civic society, everything.“That attitude is 100% wrong – we should be maximising our attitude to risk.
“We need to decide whether we want our society to be competitive in the 21st century or not, and if we do we need to change to that type of risk model right across the country.
Mr van der Kuyl pointed to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s moves into space exploration as a good example of someone taking risks.“SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, said they were going to put rockets up and land them on a ship so they could reuse them and people laughed,” he told the delegates.“One fell off the side of the ship and they said that’s OK, we’ll tweak the software.“In a traditional risk model there would be massive enquiries, everyone would be sat round a table gnashing teeth, delaying things for 10 years until they could make sure there was no mistake.“SpaceX just kept throwing them up until they got it right, which they did within a year.”
Fail early, fail forward, fail often.If you're not falling, you're not becoming a better skier. Failure to try is the biggest failure of all.Lots of aphorisms. SpaceX gets this. There are some others out there who do too, but not enough.
I would add that it is society in general. No one's a Winner, no one's a Loser, everyone gets a Participation ribbon handed out in a safe speech zone.
Quote from: JAFO on 11/05/2017 03:58 pmI would add that it is society in general. No one's a Winner, no one's a Loser, everyone gets a Participation ribbon handed out in a safe speech zone. Speaking as an early millennial now in my 30s... Noone asked me if I wanted a participation trophy. It was never about us being entitled... it was about the older generation being able to say THEIR kid won something.It's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.
It's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.
Quote from: rakaydos on 11/08/2017 09:33 pmIt's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.nonsense. They are still being lead by other generations. They are not doing it themselves.
Quote from: Jim on 11/08/2017 09:52 pmQuote from: rakaydos on 11/08/2017 09:33 pmIt's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.nonsense. They are still being lead by other generations. They are not doing it themselves.Even Elon Musk and Gwen Shotwell are only "slacker" GenXers. (I couldn't find a birth date for Tom Mueller, so he's up in the air.)
Age characteristic is like NASA of the 1960s -- just a coincidence, I'm sure.
Quote from: rakaydos on 11/08/2017 10:01 pmQuote from: Jim on 11/08/2017 09:52 pmQuote from: rakaydos on 11/08/2017 09:33 pmIt's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.nonsense. They are still being lead by other generations. They are not doing it themselves.Even Elon Musk and Gwen Shotwell are only "slacker" GenXers. (I couldn't find a birth date for Tom Mueller, so he's up in the air.)Median age at SpaceX is 29, so right in the zone for 'official' Millennial status (born 1980 to circa 2000), and tech savvy. Cannot be too many older generation 'leaders', but no doubt there are some. Age characteristic is like NASA of the 1960s -- just a coincidence, I'm sure.
Our analysis in The Space Report 2012 showed that, as of September 2011, more than 70 percent of the NASA workforce was between 40 and 60 years old. By contrast, the age profile of the overall U.S. workforce was more evenly distributed, with less than 45 percent in this range. The NASA workforce also had small number of younger professionals, with less than 12 percent under age 35.
The 2011 edition of the annual Aviation Week Workforce Study found that 22 percent of U.S. aerospace and defense company workers were 35 years or younger, a percentage that nearly matches those 56 or older.
Quote from: rakaydos on 11/08/2017 09:33 pmQuote from: JAFO on 11/05/2017 03:58 pmI would add that it is society in general. No one's a Winner, no one's a Loser, everyone gets a Participation ribbon handed out in a safe speech zone. Speaking as an early millennial now in my 30s... Noone asked me if I wanted a participation trophy. It was never about us being entitled... it was about the older generation being able to say THEIR kid won something.It's "underpaid, overworked grad student" millennials that are bringing us back to space, the way the older generation couldn't.Different people age differently.My personal feeling is that the global wars and superpower rivalry that led to the first flowering of spaceflight raised a bar that was too high for normal times. Who does want to spend 5% of taxation on rockets (present nerds excepted)?Maybe you are just now living in a time when more things are possible without needing global conflict to make them happen.
Risk tolerance.If you boiled down the myriad reasons behind one young, private company building a rocket to land 150 tonnes or 100 people per flight on Mars and another prestigious, well-healed organization giving up on even landing on Mars -- though it has been promoting that goal for 40 years -- it would be these two words.