Tribal Knowledge in the Blast Industry (Part Three)

Author:  Kumar Balan
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 35, Issue 2, Spring 2021
Doc ID:  2021014
Year of Publication:  2021
Abstract:  
THE ARROGANCE OF EXPERIENCE When speaking to past colleagues for this series, I kept recalling an incident I was involved in a few years ago. In my anxiety to make it to a meeting on time, I kept directing the cab driver in my past hometown of Bombay, India to take routes presumably not known to him. After enduring me for a while, he abruptly stopped his car and displayed his driver’s license to my face with an arrogant remark that even his credential was older than me and asked me to pipe down. He then proceeded to get me to my destination without delay! Similarly, I have often heard my seasoned colleagues complain that the new engineers were re-engineering proven designs and messing them up in the process! Would you call it arrogance, impudence or them simply knowing what has worked and will work again? So, why is it important to acknowledge the past in our industry?