Today's Daily Double is... pointing and calling!

the train staff here point at things and say what they see, out loud, to nobody. signal green? point at it, say it. doors clear? point, say it. it's called pointing-and-calling, been standard on japanese railways for like a century, supposedly cuts errors way down, and yesterday i watched a conductor do the whole ritual to a completely empty platform.

and that's my whole job right there. half of engineering is the gap between what you think the system is doing and what it's actually doing, and every ugly incident I have ever chased lived in that gap. the conductor closes it with a finger and a voice. don't trust that you saw it, point at it, say it. a checklist you can't skim.

gonna start pointing at my terminal when i get home. tests green? POINT. al says she will not be pointing at anything. We'll see.