16 votes

Silo demonstrates seven lessons in how not to do an upgrade

9 comments

  1. bytesmythe
    Link
    From what I recall, Juliette had told them what needed to be done, but in true management fashion, she was ignored. The initial conversation explicitly mentions that she had warned them of this...

    From what I recall, Juliette had told them what needed to be done, but in true management fashion, she was ignored. The initial conversation explicitly mentions that she had warned them of this and, 'til now, they had just been putting bandaids on the problems. Now they had finally reached the point where the only solution was to perform a real repair.

    The thing that actually bothered me the most was there was no pressure relief valve. That would have allowed them to vent off some of the steam and given them all the time they needed to fix the turbine blade. Also, it would let them shut it down for the regular weekly / monthly / yearly maintenance cycles that they ought to be doing.

    4 votes
  2. CptBluebear
    Link
    The last paragraph really puts the piece together haha. It sort of undermines their own article. The premise being that yeah the scene is entirely nonsense but that's fine because it's not work....

    The last paragraph really puts the piece together haha. It sort of undermines their own article. The premise being that yeah the scene is entirely nonsense but that's fine because it's not work.

    I... Don't fully agree with that premise. A scene like that (where the score did most if not all the work creating tension) needs to fit within certain parameters to stop you from eyerolling at the absurdity of it all.
    They're right in the sense that I don't need to see the planning meeting or the dull moments of a test run, but they're incorrect for assuming it's fine when the entire story hinges on heroic technomancy and they're essentially "just winging it". The stakes were only high because they made them high, and that made it somewhat silly.

    As mentioned, the score does a good job making you feel the tension regardless but in hindsight this was the weakest episode by far.

    If the author of the article just wants to write about seven principles of project management then this article does a decent job at outlining some pitfalls using a modern tv show. In which case: carry on!

    3 votes
  3. [3]
    skybrian
    Link
    My memory of it is fairly vague, but I remember Wool being pretty good. It might be more fun to read the book than articles with spoilers? (Amazon seems to be doing something weird, though, where...

    My memory of it is fairly vague, but I remember Wool being pretty good. It might be more fun to read the book than articles with spoilers?

    (Amazon seems to be doing something weird, though, where you can't buy just the first series on Kindle anymore.)

    2 votes
    1. shrike
      Link Parent
      You can also buy all of the books DRM-free directly from the author at $5.99 a pop: https://hughhowey.com/books/

      You can also buy all of the books DRM-free directly from the author at $5.99 a pop: https://hughhowey.com/books/

      3 votes
    2. joeygibson
      Link Parent
      I love the show, and have just started reading Wool, which I already like. Howey has a good writing style, and I think I would have gotten pulled in, even if I hadn't seen the show. But I had the...

      I love the show, and have just started reading Wool, which I already like. Howey has a good writing style, and I think I would have gotten pulled in, even if I hadn't seen the show. But I had the same reactions as in the article to the generator upgrade: that's not how you do that. Especially if it's a "mission critical" system.

      1 vote
  4. [3]
    largepanda
    Link
    The biggest thing I noticed was failure #8: the Silo's generator was a massive single point of failure, for a piece that could've extremely easily been made redundant. Though I guess the creators...

    The biggest thing I noticed was failure #8: the Silo's generator was a massive single point of failure, for a piece that could've extremely easily been made redundant. Though I guess the creators of the Silo (avoiding getting into any book/show spoilers here) couldn't be bothered to build more than the minimum required.

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. shrike
        Link Parent
        Some things don't work for TV as a medium. It's hard to make "We'll just run the backup as per the plan spend a week carefully fixing the main power unit with no hard time limit or hurry" exciting...

        Some things don't work for TV as a medium.

        It's hard to make "We'll just run the backup as per the plan spend a week carefully fixing the main power unit with no hard time limit or hurry" exciting to watch.

    2. rubix
      Link Parent
      In that episode I started thinking about Rendezvous with Rama. One of the fundamental aspects of the generational ship was that everything was triple redundant. There was no single point of...

      In that episode I started thinking about Rendezvous with Rama. One of the fundamental aspects of the generational ship was that everything was triple redundant. There was no single point of failure. Two extra backups ensured smooth operations over the course of an indefinite journey.

      I suppose properly redundant systems doesn't make for good television though.

  5. phareous
    Link
    There was so much wrong with that episode it’s hard to mention it all. But it matters not because she would have been instantly cooked spraying a hose at a molten door, and so your expert just got...

    There was so much wrong with that episode it’s hard to mention it all. But it matters not because she would have been instantly cooked spraying a hose at a molten door, and so your expert just got hit by a bus

    1 vote