Modern Proverbs Appeal

Landau, James James.Landau at NGC.COM
Fri Jun 1 19:35:12 UTC 2007


"Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems that Never Happened"
This is the title of an MIT paper available at URL


http://web.mit.edu/nelsonr/www/CMR_Getting_Quality_v1.0.html

But the actual phrase is probably older.


I found this at
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199800150
, which also says
<q>Airbus' two-year, multibillion-dollar production delay for the A380
is attributed to many organizational issues, but one cause that bubbles
to the surface in virtually all assessments was that local managers
apparently balked at the time and expense involved in retraining
engineers to use new design tools. Hindsight being 20/20, Airbus senior
management is said to have adopted a new mantra: "Right people, right
tools, right training and right management oversight." </q>
Yes, I did notice that the "right people etc." quote was specified
(correctly, I am sure) as a "mantra" rather than a "proverb".

A few other proverbs/mantras/sayings/cliches that are definitely 20th or
21st century:
"Speed kills".  This is actually two proverbs, the first one being about
driving and the second about illegal drugs.
"Don't drink and drive"
"Click it or ticket" - this one I believe is only a couple of years old
A saying from computer programmers that I may have submitted earlier:
"Just when you make something idiot-proof, they invent a bigger idiot."
     - Jim Landau

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