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Editor’s Column change. Order is inherent, even need, someone will think of a way Pennsylvania, knew they had the at the subatomic level. ‘Disorder’ to solve it. From the Industrial tools that could help rescue the is a human-scale notion, usually Revolution to the Manhattan Project, Chilean miners. So did the owners meaning confusion or lack of an to the advances in petroleum of Drillers Supply in Cypress, intelligible or discernible pattern: engineering and marine architecture, Texas and Antofagosta, Chile, who randomness. The concept of gaining solutions have always arisen. coordinated the logistics so that from disorder, in the engineering When news broke of the 2010 Center Rock could successfully realm, could be something as Copiapó mining accident in Chile, enlarge the borehole for the rescue simple as creative solutions this industry contributed crucial capsule.

arising from basic (non-directed) technology, including rigs from We need to be prepared for what research. There is much potential the US and Canada. Management we can’t predict – and become in randomness. Blue-sky thinking is at Center Rock, in Berlin, antifragile.

not always pragmatic, but is often fresh, new and original. ‘Knowledge . . . in complex domains inhibits research,’ Taleb says, and we lose the potential of randomness when researchers are too specialized, studying increasingly narrow felds. Major oil companies have whittled away their

R&D facilities, in favor of directed research at universities. Among those poised to gain from the fear of disorder are transactional attorneys (solicitors) who craft contracts addressing as many contingencies as possible, in an attempt to remove uncertainty.

Hormesis, Eustress ‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,’ wrote Friedrich Nietzsche. The concept of antifragility is that certain things can improve and even grow stronger when subjected to stress or turmoil. Taleb mentions hormesis – a generally favorable biological response to low exposures of toxin or other stressors – to address historical improvements in safety. Tragic disasters such as the Titanic (1912),

Piper Alpha explosion (1988), sinking of the P-36 platform (2001), and the Macondo blowout (2010) have led to step-changes in offshore designs and operational practices.

‘Eustress’ (good stress) refers to a positive response one has to a stressor. Some teams work well under stress and will rise to a challenge.

Likewise, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, meaning diffcult situations encourage novel solutions. When there’s a critical oedigital.com January 2013 | OE 19 oe_Nina.indd 19 03/01/2013 13:21