This is an excerpt from a really good August 17, 2023 article by Susan Casey, writing in "Vanity Fair," titled The Titan Submersible Disaster Was Years in the Making, New Details Reveal:
“As the world now knows, Stockton Rush touted himself as a maverick, a disrupter, a breaker of rules. So far out on the visionary curve that, for him, safety regulations were mere suggestions. ‘If you’re not breaking things, you’re not innovating,’ he declared at the 2022 GeekWire Summit. ‘If you’re operating within a known environment, as most submersible manufacturers do, they don’t break things. To me, the more stuff you’ve broken, the more innovative you’ve been.’
"In a culture that has adopted the ridiculous mantra ‘move fast and break things,’ that type of arrogance can get a person far. But in the deep ocean, the price of admission is humility – and it’s nonnegotiable. The abyss doesn’t care if you went to Princeton, or that your ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence. If you want to do down into her world, she sets the rules.”
What Susan Casey writes about venturing into the ocean depths applies to going to sea in general, I believe. Experienced mariners tend to think conservatively. I don't mean that in the political sense, but rather in terms of change and innovation. Boat and ship design stands on the shoulders of centuries of experience. What some call tradition is about more than just maritime culture - it's about inheriting an understanding of what keeps the water out of your boat and your crew safe. Mariners who disdain maritime tradition do so at their own risk.
The sea is beautiful but utterly indifferent to what happens to you. That's why when we go to sea, we prepare, prepare and prepare some more, knowing that luck can still turn against you no matter what. Going to sea with the intention of testing the limits of your preparations is inviting a smackdown.