Eddie and Morgan delve into a listener's question about dealing with costly mistakes at work, particularly focusing on the tension between accountability and blame within engineering teams. They analyze a real-world dilemma faced by a new director of engineering at a series B startup and extend the discussion to include learnings from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. They discuss the difference between meta root causes of mistakes, strategies to create a risk-aware culture, and the importance of psychological safety. They also reflect on the principle of 'move fast and break things' and its relevance to different business models.

• (00:00 ) -  Listener's Question: Balancing Proactiveness and Reactiveness
  


• (01:34 ) -  Meeting the Team Where It Is
  


• (02:49 ) -  Introduction to the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
  


• (04:52 ) - Organizational Barriers and Failures
  


• (07:12 ) -  Analyzing Public Postmortems
  


• (08:08 ) -  Root Causes of Production Problems
  


• (14:35 ) - Meta Root Causes and Organizational Impact
  


• (19:08 ) - Applying Meta Root Causes to the Columbia Disaster
  


• (21:00 ) - Relevance to Smaller Companies
  


• (23:22 ) -  The Importance of Risk Management
  


• (23:49 ) - Meta Root Cause: Prioritization Challenges
  


• (24:53 ) - Psychological Safety in the Workplace
  


• (25:51 ) - DEI Programs and Industry Trends
  


• (26:43 ) -  Generational Differences in Work Culture
  


• (29:36 ) - Decision-Making Frameworks
  


• (30:31 ) - Addressing Burnout and Low Drive
  


• (35:32 ) - Handling Mistakes and Accountability
  


• (43:35 ) - The Role of Mistakes in Engineering Cultures