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Subject:RE: Another tragic case of not reading the manual From:<Daniel_Hall -at- trendmicro -dot- com> To:<eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Aug 2003 13:24:30 -0700
Eric,
Note that I'm only talking about this particular instance, and that nowhere did I say safety isn't a valuable goal in designing machinery or writing docs.
If you read the post again, you'll see that I just said that in _this particular case_, where a worker entered what was essentially an oven, the majority of the blame in what happened is his. If you take that as a call for a return to a Dickensian serfdom for workers, you missed the point.
I'm not questioning that safety is a Good Thing®. But where does most of the responsibility lie in this particular case? With the device manufacturer? The company owner? The head engineer? Or the guy who climbed into what is essentially an oven? You already know what I think. And "He was just following orders" went out as an excuse in 1945.
Maybe this is just my reaction against the current fixation on attaching blame anywhere but where it belongs. Or perhaps it's just frustration that common sense isn't?
My docs all have warnings and cautions, but I don't tell users not to climb into ovens.
