My very best friends have turned out to be those with the guts to criticize me when it was needed - they cared enough to call it as they saw it when I needed to hear it. They weren't haters or trolls, but people who saw something worthy enough in me to bother risking feelings to tell it as they saw it.
OK Jeff, you opened the door so I'll walk through. IMHO you have a gift for writing. And the words seem like they flow freely for you, unlike my infrequent posts which always seem to take me too long to write. Also, I think I tend to agree with much of what you have to say although at times I'm not entirely sure. But geez, Jeff! This is a research forum, not an Advanced English course. Do all your posts have to read like they were written by Shakespeare himself? Surely you can self edit the chafe from the wheat and do us all a favor.
There. I said it. We don't need to be "very best friends" but I'd be happy to have a beer with you some day!
I'm not clear on what's not to be understood, James, but if you'd like the thumbnail version it could be written as follows:
"Can the suspense over 'interesting things seen' and just tell us 'no idea if anything worthwhile seen'" be cut off? Likewise, out with the sympathies and drama of 'it's so tough out there' and get on with a more Vinegar Joe Stilwell-like "I maintain we screwed that one up but we're going to figure out why and how and fix it" - as an organization, not just Ric on the spot.
Here are a few starting observations:
- The environment at Niku is well known after many trips; what was so harsh about it that it caused a mother board to fail in the one ROV?
- Why would only one ROV be taken into such a critical, remote environment? Was it the right ROV with enough juice to handle conditions there (currents)? Taking only one multiplies the risk of failure many times - how was that decision made, by whom, and how will it happen differently in the future?
- Was it a FedEx backout that so limited shipping that only one ROV was decided on? Why weren't resources like FedEx consulted earlier if late news was the problem (did FedEx reneg, or was their new policy simply not known because they were taken for granted?)
I could go on, these are just examples. They are not meant to criticize individuals or cast blame, but to step around the soft sympathies we all may feel but which are useless if a meaningful, hard-nosed search is the intent.
Many right here in this forum might get aboard better if this were a more open discussion, and a surprising amount of information might flow. Yes we all know things fail; yes we know Niku is remote (biggest challenge I can see) and harsh (so is the Georgia coast) - so knowing those those things, what was done about them?
What was not done about them?
What should be done about them?
I recognize that Ric's on the hot seat. Back to the Stillwell answer - own it and build the next one better and tell us why it will be, or shrivel. These expeditions must be far more about nuts and bolts refinement (or should be) than promotion (IMO). Corporate due diligence should demand that.
Is that a bit more direct, James?
Call me a troll if you wish, but somewhere here I've read "credibility is everything" and that TIGHAR puts science first. I merely invite that to be At the core here, but I've also been told a time or two that the forum is not the place of real business. I realize it cannot wholly be THE place of business, but if it's not at all, then many of us have wasted a lot of time.