I came across the phrase "incident pit" in a science fiction novel, Pushing Ice, and was startled that I'd never heard of it before. It's a divers' term, referring to a situation where things slowly get worse, then more rapidly. Here's the definition from the linked site:
In essence, the incident pit is something that you gradually fall into. One small thing might not initially go to plan or a relatively minor piece of equipment might break down or get left at home; when this happens you have put your first foot into the incident pit. Initially it is not a problem, but then something else goes wrong - that is another step into the pit. The challenge with the incident pit is that with each step, not only do you get closer and closer to the bottom of the pit and a serious incident, but with each step the sides of the pit get steeper and steeper. It gets more and more difficult to get out the further into the pit you go.
That sounds so familiar!
3 comments:
In my "Loss Control" course, they told us that one in 200 close calls results in an incident. That two hundred incidents will have a serious "consequence", and one in two hundred consequences will result in a fatality.
I think the math is a bit shakey, but the idea was to watch and learn from close calls.
I like Ben Franklin's saw that "a stitch in time saves nine" . Says the same thing but without the verbiage.
An incident pit would be a parallel situation, whereas the normal progression would be serial. A chain of small "warning" disasters which if fail at any point will avert the big one.
Sounds like a whole course could be built up from the comparison of the two ideologies.
TTFN
I fear that with all the
The concepts underneath it sound like they'd be pretty interesting, if I could stomach the math.
I am reading same book now and had same reaction. Searched term and saw your post. I am also Bill. Reading Reynolds is always a trip
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