I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293

Preparing for this talk was a humbling process, as these systems are so complicated! I'm grateful for the countless conversations I had with people from all over the country in preparation for this talk. Also, if you feel like Smarter Every Day adds value to your life and you'd like to be in on the Sticker Team and STICK with me, I'd love to have your support on Patreon! Here's the link 👉 www.patreon.com/smartereveryday 👈 Thank you for considerin

Destin, I work at NASA-JSC. Several people sent me this today. Your message is being heard. I will say that the redundancy and testing are still there, but Apollo took incredible risks that we cannot afford today. You are 100% spot on re: not relying on technological miracles. Some of the artist concepts make me wonder if all my work is in vain. NOTE: My opinions are my own. I do not speak for NASA.

In decades of working in Engineering I've worked with only one engineer that would hand me his design and ask me to tear it apart (a sort of pre-design review - design review). We'd later meet up in a glass walled conference room and discuss it. Often it would get quite animated. I later found out that my coworkers thought we hated one another as they took notice of our sometimes loud discussions. What they didn't know was that after those meetings we would go out to lunch together and yuk it up. In 30 years he was one of the very few engineers that had no ego and instead did whatever it took to make the design better.

I am no rocket scientist, but as someone who has spoken up about problems in the workplace only to be fired later, thank you for helping to place a greater sense of value in communication. Not just for those who would speak up, but for those who need to listen.

Retired embedded systems software engineer here. Single best YouTube video I have ever seen.

Destin, you say you were scared, but the importance of the message dictated you speak up. You prepared, you read manuals and reviewed other materials, you interviewed people who knew what happened in the past -- and held on tight to your courage and conviction -- and gave a presentation that hundreds of thousands of people are excited to see! Win-win-win all around. So proud of you!

I was a former engineer on the Orion propulsion system working on Artemis-1, 2 and 3. All the folk in our branch used to always joke that Orion was always two years from launching but I don't think it ever really clicked for us just how big of a communication issue was going on, I realize now that a lot of us were just so compartmentalized in our work and not actually seeing the bigger picture of what we were trying to do. So thank you for getting this out into the open Destin. It's important for us to be getting that negative feedback so we can achieve more and be better engineers.

Watching this a second time, I remembered what an OHS Consultant told me what a lot of his work entailed. A company with a work injury problem would employ him to suggest problem fixes. He would go to the factory floor, ask the workers what the problem was and if they had any ideas on how to fix it. He would take those fixes, write them up in "Managementese language" and present them with a bill for consultancy. His point was that management's reluctance to accept that workers knew their job better than others, led to a breakdown in communication which hampered problem solving.

I once overheard some collegues talking about a test that kept failing. They could not figure out why, so they deleted it. I was like: "I hope you can hear how wrong you guys sound".

Destin, I work as a researcher at Purdue University, alma mater of Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The focus of my research is in space mission architectures. Multiple people (from my lab) sent me your video this week. Rest assured that, in academia, your words will also be used to carry out more in-depth investigations about the impact of the Artemis decisions and alternatives for future missions. Thank you for your bold presentation.

Destin out here taking social risks for other people's physical risks. What a legend.

I'm here because the Common Sense Skeptic mentioned this video in his. This was so well worth the watch.

I worked as a bicycle mechanic for almost a decade and the guy I first trained under was honestly the best within a 200 mile radius of our shop. He still had me test ride and give feedback on every bike he worked on after he deemed the repair complete. If I thought something was off he would address it and explain to me either how/why he had failed to catch what was causing the particular issue or explain why what I had noticed was within acceptable parameters for that particular work order. There was never any negative emotions associated with feedback. We would always check each other's work and took pride in collectively doing the best job we could possibly do. That experience taught me so much on what I wanted my working relationships to look like. It doesn't matter how good you are as an individual, you will always be best as a collective with a unified goal. That only works, though, if you're humble enough to say "Hey, new guy. Tell me what you think about this"

NASA Scientists hate this one weird trick...

This reminds me of Feyman's take on the Challenger disaster: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." — Richard Feynman

U just got boosted by thundef00t my man. Bravo for speaking out.

Thanks so much for putting a picture of the crew in your presentation. It seems like for many this is nothing more than a vanity project, remembering the crew is the primary mission is an absolute must. What an interesting and informative discussion, thanks so much for posting!

This talk is so meta… Destin is giving the audience a rundown of how his talks work, while he’s giving a talk to them. Awesome. On so many levels.

I wasn't expecting to watch a whole 1-hour lecture, yet you managed to keep me thoroughly engaged. Hope you really made a difference back there

I saw your face pop up on thunderfoot and was scared for a second. I'm so glad that you were able to articulate these things in such a way to get such high praise. Keep up the amazing work!