Automation

I wanted to get better at writing. My plan: “I’ll write every day.” What happened: Day 1: Wrote 500 words. Felt great. Day 2: Forgot to write until 11 PM. Rushed 200 words. Day 3: Too tired. Skipped. Day 4: “I’ll write tomorrow.” Day 7: Hadn’t written since Day 2. The problem: I relied on willpower and memory. Willpower is finite. Memory is unreliable. Then I built a system. The system: ...

In 2009, Air France Flight 447 was cruising at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. The Airbus A330 was one of the most automated aircraft ever built. The pilots barely needed to fly it-automation handled almost everything. Then the airspeed sensors iced over. The autopilot disengaged. Control handed to the pilots. And in the next four minutes, three highly trained pilots flew a perfectly functional aircraft into the ocean, killing all 228 people aboard. ...