[SystemSafety] On off periods

[Grazebrook, Alvery AN]

This is a slightly oblique answer. I encountered SAD in a programmer, who I used to work with at one of my previous employers. The company arranged for him to have daylight lights above his desk, and was careful to manage the type of work he was given in Jan / Feb time of year. I don’t remember an atypical bug rate, but I do remember that he preferred long single tasks over winter, rather than bug-fix bonanzas or other very fragmented work.

Cheers,
                Alvery

From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Olwen Morgan
Sent: 17 September 2018 2:06 PM
To: clayton at veriloud.com
Cc: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] On off periods


Not a banal answer at all. Actually the question first came up when I was talking about my down periods with a friend who also gets SAD. She said that if, say, airline pilots have to have regular medicals, then given the reliance of airliners on software, would it not make some sense to check whether the people writing it are under par for whatever reason.

I just tossed the question in to see what people's reactions might be.

Actually, I realise that I slightly misstated myself in the original posting. It's not an invariable rule. I might be prepared to start work in March if the winter hasn't been too bad. Also, it's mainly programming and modelling that it affects and not other lifecycle tasks that require (for me at least) less intense concentration.


regards,
Olwen

On 16/09/18 22:51, clayton at veriloud.com<mailto:clayton at veriloud.com> wrote:



On Sep 16, 2018, at 8:47 AM, Olwen Morgan <olwen.morgan at btinternet.com<mailto:olwen.morgan at btinternet.com>> wrote:

I'm wondering if, in some circumstances, engineers working on critical systems ought to have regular medicals for mental health issues.

Another “banal answer" I fear (to what I think are great comments and questions), but: this is why, formal code inspections (rigorous peer review), and why your comments on testability (complexity) in the other thread (which also includes the benefit of ‘understandability) is vital! No other form of analysis substitutes (when dealing with humans that is…).

Clayton Weimer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/weimer/



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