## Defending the Death Star

* Author: u/None *
* URL: 
* Score: 6

* Created: 2017-05-26T11:16:24

### Post:

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### Comments:

> **u/None** [+4]  (45 minutes later)
> 
> I don't understand how it's possible to have such a huge engineering project be sabotaged by a single (not even trusted) architect, surely the plans have passed through the hands of thousands of scientists and engineers and architects who would all have seen his design flaw for what it was and have rectified it or brought it to the attention of their leadership.
> 
> Prior to Rogue One I preferred thinking of the exhaust port hole as a design limitation and the force being an out-of-context solution to something that would have ordinarily been impossible to target, the missiles bent in their flight path because the force guided them. I liked the idea that the death star exploded because it had a particularly unstable and untested power source because nothing prior needed such huge amounts of power.

>> **u/alexanderwales** [+7]  *Time flies like an arrow* (3 hours later)
>> 
>> The Death Star was built by a dysfunctional organization which had to resort to conscripting a lead architect in the first place. Most of the management probably rose to their level of incompetence, or past their level of competence by being political creatures who are good at taking credit for the work of others and shifting blame. Most of the people lower down are probably content to do the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid reprimand and continue to collect a paycheck. This all gets worse if you have an imperial culture which actively discourages the questioning of superiors.
>> 
>> And if someone *does* come forward to point out the flaw, then a clever enough architect is ready to defend his design decision by saying that this is a result of engineering constraints and proscribed trade-offs.

>>> **u/VanPeer** [+3]  *The shard made me do it* (4 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Liked your Death Star story, btw. I thought it was spot-on in depicting some corporate consultant cultures I've worked for.

>>> **u/Tar_alcaran** [+1]  (6 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Promotion by "boss-got-choked" eh?

> **u/Sailor_Vulcan** [+3]  *Champion of Justice and Reason* (6 hours later)
> 
> The link doesn't work

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