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Comment by michaelcampbell | Hacker News Reader

> So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl … ...They didn’t read the contract.

I don't know that that necessarily follows. It could be that they read it, said "fuck that", and did everything else to spec. Good story tho.

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> It could be that they read it, said "fuck that", and did ...

Exactly. You wonder what else they said "fuck that" to because they don't care or think it's not necessary.

An even better case to catch.

Yeah. I'm imagining the guy who says "fuck that" to picking the brown m&ms out as the same kind of person who goes "10A circuits should be fine. They build safety margins into those" or "those rafters should be fine to hold 2 tons of equipment. They're really stout 2x6's." You know, the kind of person who just assumes they know better and that what is planned doesn't matter. And if you let them do that they will totally kill you with their negligence.

> "fuck that" to picking the brown m&ms out as the same kind of person who goes "10A circuits should be fine. They build safety margins into those"

You've never worked with an electrician. This is not how these things work.

I love that this story gives people the warm fuzzies; enough to downvote. =D

As I said in another reply: The post even said they'd go ahead and check stuff. Does anyone think they WOULDN'T have checked that show equipment for one of the biggest rock bands of the day if they found no brown M&M's? Really?

But it's trivially easy to do, and the venue knows that not doing it is a violation of contract. A violation of contract could cost them the whole show, so there's no reason not to do it.

It's a heuristic. A single, cheap, effective one IMHO, but no heuristic is 100% accurate.

There is nothing to indicate any effectiveness whatsoever; how many shows were cancelled as a result? The post even said they'd go ahead and check stuff. Does anyone think they WOULDN'T have checked that show equipment for one of the biggest rock bands of the day if they found no brown M&M's? Really?

It's a canary in the coal mine. Presumably they still checked other critical things but based on the canary could determine how closely they needed to check everything.

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