Optimizing for conditions that are rarely observed

After I wrote about my fascination about well made tools, I noticed that there is a special case of this. I am fascinated by things that are focused on optimizing for conditions that are rarely observed. Those are the conditions where it's very apparent how valuable it is to have something designed by a competent person putting in the work.

Take failure modes as an example. In sports or industrial climbing, people rely on their material (ropes, belay devices, carabiners) and techniques (knots, routines for securing yourself like Standplatzbau). A knot might bear the same load as another one but be easier to check. For example the Doppelter Achter is usually taught to beginners because it's easier to check if it's correct compared to the Doppelter Bulin, which is slightly faster to tie and is easier to un-tie after a fall.

Another example are airplanes. I recently talked to someone working on cabin lighting in airplanes. And he told me that the average car is built to last 2000h. The average plane is built to last 70000h. A regular "city hopper" drives as many kilometers a year as a family car (2km runway + 1km moving around in the airfield; times two for lift of and landing; times 4 or so for the number of trips or day). When you built for airplanes you have to ensure what you built know can be replaced in 10 to 15 years and the replacement parts need to fit the specs exactly. That means you have to think about supply chains and picking material very differently compared to "buy it once and replace when the time comes".

Finding out about cases like this show to me how much of the things I take for granted are pretty hard to get right and it makes me more humble and grateful for living in a world where people care about getting things right.