https://12thman.com/sports/2019/11/12/th...esire.aspx

Sad example of the dangers of groupthink and failure to listen to different voices. A professor had been saying for years it was structurally unsound. Nobody wanted to listen to him. Enron 5 years later didn’t cost lives but it cost lots of jobs when nobody questioned the narrative.

(11-18-2019 03:20 PM)bullet Wrote:  Sad example of the dangers of groupthink and failure to listen to different voices. A professor had been saying for years it was structurally unsound. Nobody wanted to listen to him. Enron 5 years later didn’t cost lives but it cost lots of jobs when nobody questioned the narrative.

Yes, IIRC, an almost cult-like atmosphere had grown around the building of the bonfire, with elaborate rituals and byzantine organizational structures that had tentacles throughout the campus. By the time of the disaster it had become an elaborate months-long enterprise, bloated and overblown.

I mean, a reasonable bonfire should be a single-day activity involving a handful of people.

(11-18-2019 07:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(11-18-2019 03:20 PM)bullet Wrote:  Sad example of the dangers of groupthink and failure to listen to different voices. A professor had been saying for years it was structurally unsound. Nobody wanted to listen to him. Enron 5 years later didn’t cost lives but it cost lots of jobs when nobody questioned the narrative.

Yes, IIRC, an almost cult-like atmosphere had grown around the building of the bonfire, with elaborate rituals and byzantine organizational structures that had tentacles throughout the campus. By the time of the disaster it had become an elaborate months-long enterprise, bloated and overblown.

I mean, a reasonable bonfire should be a single-day activity involving a handful of people.

Texas had a bonfire that took weeks to build. Usually more a log pile than the elaborate stack the Aggies did. But the tradition ended after '76. Too many frat boys were flunking out.

The Aggies 1999 bonfire wasn't even the biggest one. In 1969 they built one that was about 110 ft. high. After that they limited the height.

Here

(11-18-2019 07:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(11-18-2019 03:20 PM)bullet Wrote:  Sad example of the dangers of groupthink and failure to listen to different voices. A professor had been saying for years it was structurally unsound. Nobody wanted to listen to him. Enron 5 years later didn’t cost lives but it cost lots of jobs when nobody questioned the narrative.

Yes, IIRC, an almost cult-like atmosphere had grown around the building of the bonfire, with elaborate rituals and byzantine organizational structures that had tentacles throughout the campus. By the time of the disaster it had become an elaborate months-long enterprise, bloated and overblown.

I mean, a reasonable bonfire should be a single-day activity involving a handful of people.

So are you saying that this was truly "a bonfire of the vanities"?