A great anecdotal example of how wisdom of the crowds can help solving small but important parts of complex problems. Shuttle Atlantis was ready to launch but it was overweight, just 600 pounds but engineers were not able to find anything they could sacrifice to get to the right weight.
Every NASA employee involved in the project was asked to take part of a brainstorming session and for the back of the room the mechanic whose job it was to paint the fuel tank called out "Don't paint it!".
Well the weight of the white paint was enough to save 600 pounds and that was the reason why the tank launched not painted, rusty but functional. And the wisdom of crowds won again.
Comments