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roystgnr comments on What are some science mistakes you made in college? - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: aarongertler 23 March 2014 05:28AM

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Comment author: roystgnr 25 March 2014 06:08:47PM 3 points [-]

This applies to engineering labs, too, which sometimes do a better job of teaching the "hubris leading to downfall" trope than some literature departments. Our permanent staff knew everything inside and out, and worked there for decades with little incident. The undergraduates had a semester class to hammer in safety rules, and so my subsequent robot design project only left me with a tiny scar from when I stupidly assumed a rule wouldn't apply. The graduate students were expected to already know what they were doing, and during my senior year one lost a thumb when that expectation proved false.