Do You Trust It?

I've had this topic on my todo list for since Dec 5th, 2016.  My motivation was aimed at past experiences but particularly timely given Boeing 737 Max fiasco.

Trust is a complicated subject and one of the most powerful demonstration of trust in a person or product is when you place your life on the line.  That greatly simplifies a response, it becomes binary and I'd argue that is the true measure of trust in a person or thing.

The first time I entertained the question 'do I trust this thing' from an engineering perspective was when I was working for a defense contractor who specialized in designing weapon systems.  Throughout the development stages the product goes through a metamorphosis of stability.  Early stages when swinging equipment you stay 30 yards away.  Slowly your confidence builds, the risky bits of the system are addressed and you step a bit closer.  Closer, and closer until you trust the system with the same level of confidence that the soldiers will need to.

Misguided trust could be catastrophic;
Like the untimely death of Garry Hoy, a lawyer who emphatically trusted the installation of hi-rise office building windows, misplaced trust can end tragically; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Garry_Hoy

So I always wondered....how many of these folks trust this system enough to put their life on the line?  Would I?

Enter Boeing.  I'm sure the 737 root cause can be found, and likely remedied.  Fast-forward a few years from now.  You're making you way down the jetway bridge to your awaiting plane, you make it to your seat and begin settling in.  Like every good passenger, you refer to the safety brochure and your gaze is caught by '737 Max'.  Where are you now?  Still seated or is there a cartoon-style smoke outline of where you once were while your physical body is approaching the sound barrier back to the rotunda?

Assuming the plane isn't decommissioned indefinitely, what would it take for you to trust it not to fall from the sky once again?

Would the Boeing board-of-directors climb into a randomly selected aircraft for a series of stops around the world?  Would they trust the fix with their lives?  How about the engineers?  Would the FAA be willing to take the top tier of their organizational chart and take a trip to Vegas on it?

I certainly hope so, and if not but it's released to the rest of the world I think it would speak volumes on how they view us common folk.

I hope we all trust the products we are designing, and if not, we really should.