How a precision misplace makes a hero?
Precision can make you lose millions in exchange.
Precision can cause you to lose your biggest customer.
…but what if it helps the creation of an iconic character?
We learn from our mistakes. When I was a junior developer, I remember my first precision misplace. It was going to cause
one of the premium customers extra payment, but thank god it didn’t.
Putting that little comma (or dot) a digit next to where it should be was about to turn a nightmare.
It turns out to be that, experiencing those kinds of things take you from Point A (which is your current state) to Point B (a new level of wisdom).
In short, you shouldn’t be making the same mistake once again or if the damage is done, you should wait for someone to fix it…
In 1870, German scientist Erich von Wolf made a mistake while measuring the amount of iron in vegetables. He noted down the amount of iron as 35,0 mg for 100 gr of spinach instead of 3,5 mg. That means 10x times more iron than it actually has!
More than 3 decades later, Elzie Crisler Segar created Popeye. As a cartoon figure, it had nothing to do with spinach. Popeye was doing something stupid to call his super strength. Later, editors changed that super strength calling the action with eating spinach. The story was reasonable and depending on scientific facts. Parents, kids, everybody liked this uneducated sailor, weird looking, spinach-eating sailor.
It was not until late 1930s someone rechecked amount of iron inside spinach. The cartoon had already caused a boost in spinach sales in the U.S.
Now after all those, would you like your spinach with eggs or cheese? …or forget about all these and put that comma in the right place :)