Routine

Bozo Sapiens (a blog I just discovered courtesy of Nina T.) has a very interesting post about the Exxon Valdez accident and routine :

The Exxon Valdez, like most modern supertankers, was a study in contrasts.  Carrying 53 million gallons of crude and nearly as long as the Chrysler building is tall, it was controlled by a crew smaller than many fishing boats'. Computer technology did most of the hard work, but – crucially – did not make decisions.  The result was an inevitable mismatch between the high responsibility of the job and its low prestige:  as long as nothing went wrong, sailing a supertanker was not that much more interesting or glamorous than driving a bus.