The advertising "industry" has done a stellar job of murkification. Induced mass innumeracy has escalated to numerophobia. (And I very much doubt they manage at all well with the dimes and quarters. They tap the plastic card on whatever little gizmo lights up at them and moan about the big scary number on their monthly bill.) This all makes so much the easier to bilk them for millions or billions or even as much as thousands of dollars.
I saw my first gopher in Illinois last summer. My uncle had to tell me what it was. Until that moment, I honestly thought they were the size of the big hand puppet in Caddyshack.
Focus groups are notoriously filled with idiots though. People know that a third is bigger than a quarter. Another reason that A&W didn't do as well is because they're just not as popular, and one burger apparently couldn't change that. It's hard to take business away from McDonalds. ETA: My five-year old knows that a third is a bigger portion than a quarter.
Yes, I have never met someone that didn't have a basic understanding of fractions. I mean, we have to use fractions of inches whenever we want to measure something small, so in theory Americans should be better at it than anyone else.
I think you have. I had a government job and the ‘new starter’ couldn’t read. She was sacked...but hindsight says she deserved a medal.
The real reason for the high turnover rate in the construction industry. Bill: Looks like this one's 5' 6 14/17" Job: Alright, I've got some drill bits here, but it's only in thirteenths. Bill: The seventeenths are over there against the wall. Job: [comes back] Got it. Bill: What the hell? Job: What? Bill: This one's too long. Job: Dammit. Now we've got to cut it down to forty-thirds. Bill: I didn't bring those. Bill & Job: [quit]
After twenty years of living abroad my it boggles my mind that my countrymen can build anything. NASA once turned a $125,000,000 Mars weather satellite into a $125,000,000 fireworks show on Mars by programming half the software in pounds of thrust and the other half in newtons of thrust. History does not record the reactions of the Martians. https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-report/
Bad management, misguided delegation, and poor communication. It happens everywhere. I don't care what kind of business it is or how well the systems are designed, if you don't have competent people overseeing things, bad shit happens.
The martians recorded it as an act of war... they are still working on their retaliation because they believe that revenge is a dish best served cold
It's the rule of five. Nobody can effectively and completely manage more than 5 people directly. Nobody can effectively and completely remember more than 5 things directly. Nobody can effectively and completely execute more than 5 tasks directly. The moment you have to add a sixth entity of anything, you need to add another layer to the system. Unless you already have 5 layers... then you're fucked.
A-a-a-nd, that's only true until somewhere between the ages of 25 and 40, depending on one's circumstances and constitution. The number of things, tasks, etc. diminishes with age, physical debility and level of anxiety. By age 70, I was down to three; only a couple of years later, I find two things to manage something of a challenge. But I'm still pretty good at many things - one at a time. This, btw, is not annoying unless someone distracts me from the task at hand.
There once was a bridge across the Rhine, which happens to be at a place where the Rhine is the border between Switzerland and Germany, so the bridge was a joined (ha!) program. When it came to join the two parts, it was discovered that there was an elevation difference of roughy half a meter. The Germans had used the North Sea level to zero, the Swiss the Mediterranean... (Note: It was up to the Germans to fix this, if only because their part of the bridge was shorter.) (Note 2: Both the fact which sea level was deemed as zero, as well as how much difference this makes, are common knowledge among civil engineers on both sides of the border.)
The same as the discrepancy when the Channel Tunnel met in the middle - a 33 mile tunnel dug from either end, under a sea. Amazing. crazy cock up for the bridge though - I expect someone got sacked...