fire drill

[jay]

Is what we call a sudden flurry of activity, often with some decision at stake. Here, I had 25 minutes to come up with several information technology projects that would be harmed if our Arctic field season was cancelled. Thanks to a bunch of phone calls, contacts, a hallway conversation and x.500, I found two more (plus my own), wrote them up with substantiating information, principal investigators, and sent this all off just in time. One of the projects was one I'd never heard of before... I'm fast. And good at marshalling arguments and people in last-minute, high-stress efforts. (blows virtual smoke from fingertips ;)

We are now better than 50/50 to get funding, IMO. Tomorrow's the drop-dead date.

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

You may enjoy it, but don't you think that this is not the way to make intelligent decisions about scientific and engineering issues? These are deterministic things, and should not rely on who's friends with who, who happens to be in the office when the phone rings etc..

It would all seem to be symptomatic of an overly macho management culture which will (and probably does) breed mistakes and bad decisions.

Yes, ESA has its own deficiencies, but I'm unaware of any last minute messing around like this. I've seen missions teetering on the brink, depending on final meetings and deadlines, but this was *years* before anything flew or any hardware got built.

With this level of adrenalin dependency at work, is it any wonder that your home life seems boring? Has NASA made you a thrill junky, I wonder?

And I stand by my original point - its a fuc*ing stupid way to run an organisation - NASA or Lockheed!