Wickham's musings from Chalke

Many years ago there was concern that children watching violent films or playing computer games would be mentally affected. The experts thought that they would become violent, but I don’t think that has come to pass to any great extent. My concern was that they would see someone laid unconscious or killed, only for that person to reappear seconds later totally well and with no headache. They would assume that this was how it was in real life.

Some of those children are now in managerial positions and I can see the result. Whereas many years ago any new development would be discussed thoroughly, designed and tested before implementation, today everything is rushed through to final application and if it goes wrong it is mended, time and again.

In other words, they act like actors in films or as people do in computer games; they get things done in a mad rush and if it doesn’t work then they start again, like a game.

We see the effect mainly in practical situations where if something goes wrong even once there could be deaths, for instance the railways.

The managers always want the workers to work quicker, operational checks are reduced or done away with, staff cuts are made, etc, while the unions on behalf of the workers realise that cutting corners is likely to result in crashes. In their view everything has to be done methodically and checked because someone might die at the first problem or mistake. The “game” can’t be restarted in real life.

Similarly, if a clerical mistake is made, it is just corrected, possibly without an apology and possibly without re-issuing the faulty document, just incorporating the amendment in the next routine report. The situation is totally different in industries where things have to be done right first time and every time.

Computer games aren’t helping to create the correct mindset for these situations.