Understanding Risk Compensation — Because Error Proofing Isn’t Enough Road safety is an excellent example of a system where many have tried to change the public’s behaviour and stop things from going wrong. Error proofing is a common approach, making things easy to get right and difficult to get wrong, but it isn’t without its […]
Preventing Human Error
A Problem with the envelope On February 26th 2017, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its 89th award ceremony, celebrating the best films of 2016. The ceremony was a case study in preventing human error (or not depending on your perspective). It went swimmingly until the very last award for best picture. Faye Dunaway […]
Learning From the Boy Who Cried Wolf
False positive and false negative Lots of us are paid to make decisions: Maybe you decide how to treat a patient Maybe you decide if a prisoner is guilty Maybe you decide how much soup to prepare Maybe you decide if a payment is fraudulent Maybe, maybe, maybe. There are plenty of decisions to be […]
Mistakes on Death Row
Yesterday I read about a man who had been falsely convicted of murder. Damon Thibodeaux walked free after spending 15 years on death row in Louisiana State Penitentiary. Now he is going to spend his time “concentrating on putting my life back together and moving forward”. Can you imagine? Damon is the 18th person to be released from […]
When I’m Old and Grey(er)
I’m getting on a little. After 25 years of work I want to make sure that I don’t have to do another 25. Tragically, I am starting to worry about my pension. I want to spend my golden years watching the sun set over the ocean, not sitting in an office. So I have talked […]
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