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Comment on Southwest Boeing 737-800 flight from Denver loses engine cover

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Previously discussed and flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39963776

Comment which I Favorited: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39964702

We all know the Baader–Meinhof / frequency illusion, which is where something becomes interesting to an observer so suddenly they notice things that were always there, but because they suddenly notice it seems there has been some massive increase in frequency.
What is it when something gets into the zeitgeist narrative so every possible instance is widely reported on in a way that it wasn't before? Parts have always been flying off planes, and there have always been maintenance issues, but suddenly every single one is reported making it feel like it's some sudden outbreak. In the same way we're hearing about every boat hitting something when boats have always been hitting things, it just didn't have a context under which it was newsworthy.

Internalize this, I am trying to as well. This is one of the points of HN-worthy discussion.

It's kind of amazing that, in reality, everything is always almost-failing (love the efficiency BAYBYYY).

If we gold-plated every solution we would run out of gold; or have fewer solutions.

Of course, in reality, there are a LOT of things happening, and we hear about the few notable failures, not the many many many almost-failures.

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