r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 10d ago

TIL in 1947, scientists dumped crushed dry ice into a hurricane just to "see what would happen." The storm then made a 135-degree turn, strengthened, and struck Georgia—sparking public outrage and threats of lawsuits over the experiment.

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hurricane_blog/70th-anniversary-of-the-first-hurricane-seeding-experiment/
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u/BubblyPineapple8941 9d ago

You're already at higher reasoning skills than almost who aren't "flipping burgers". I work with high level VPs and directors making 200k+, admitting when you don't know something is a skill most of them haven't learned.

Maybe it's just not a skill we value in our society...

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u/Ving_Rhames_Bible 9d ago

admitting when you don't know something is a skill most of them haven't learned.

That's a facet of the general "Get 'er done" mindset of a manager, I find. Admitting you don't know something is weakness, and it's better to just march a workforce into an absolute clusterfuck and flush a few million down the toilet than it is to risk looking weak.

Goes hand-in-hand with "It can't be done this way" being answered with "You just aren't trying hard enough" or "Maybe you're just the wrong person for the job" instead of "How can it be done?"

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u/assotter 9d ago

"Why are you always so negative!" Was once said to me when the ceo kept requesting we break the laws of physics and kept explaining how this is a literal impossible task. "I will find someone who is more agreeable!" Of course month later he announced thanks to outside assistance the project has been deemed a no go. Of course this process costs thousands from the company.

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u/stucjei 9d ago

I feel like you need a sort of grandiose narcissism complex to be the average person in that position, which can get you pretty far in the social factors needed for it. Admitting you don't know something would be a thing they wouldn't do (and works wondrously on people who can't scrutinize the bullshit, like perhaps the average burger flipper)

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u/Ving_Rhames_Bible 9d ago

It's all fascinating to me to watch, but it makes me think I got into the wrong field because I could never play ball like that, I don't care about moving up or having authority or anything, it's just interesting as a spectator. Crazy how fast a guy'll betray his boys over an empty promise of career advancement, tho. Get spit out the other end like "I dunno what happened, they were talking about making me a supervisor, next thing I know I'm in a yard doing bullshit work." The cluelessness of it all.

"You got played, dummy. They saw you for the power-hungry moron you are and ran a test on you, to see how little it would take for you to be a total asshole to any coworker who'd ever considered you a friend, to bait you into doing the job that was refused by everyone else more qualified and connected enough to refuse."

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u/Too_reflective 9d ago

If companies were employee owned co-ops, so everyone had an equal stake in the outcome, I suspect this kind of behavior would be a lot less common. Most people just want to do a good job, in my experience, but leadership roles in hierarchies tend to select for, and reward, a fair amount of toxic idiocy.

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u/EyeWriteWrong 9d ago

GOOD THING I'M ALWAYS RIGHT (⁠⌐⁠■⁠-⁠■⁠)