tom_geraghty1d ago

The Vasa sank in 1628 because the people who knew it would sink didn't feel able to say so to the people who could have done something about it.

We wrote up the full case study — Vasa Syndrome, authority gradients, and what the sister ship tells us about organisational learning.

https://psychsafety.com/the-vasa-disaster/

The Vasa

The Vasa Disaster A few years ago, I was working for a client in Stockholm and in some free time, I visited the wreck of the Vasa, the world’s best-preserved 17th-century ship. She’s housed in a museum built specifically around […]

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@tom_geraghty Vasa is probably one of my favorite Swedish artefacts and I love that we have an entire museum dedicated to it. We wouldn't have such a well-preserved ship if it wasn't absolutely dogshit.

Honestly, that makes me think about the way our perception of history might be skewed because the things that survive to get into museums are whatever things people didn't completely use up, and sometimes they didn't use it up because it was terrible.

One example of this I've seen play out is fantasy authors looking at jousting armor for inspiration, cus that's what a lot of museums have. It's not that those armors are terrible for their intended purpose, but it's a little like a far future historical fiction writers putting their 21st century soldiers in Hockey pads and football helmets. Like those are authentic 21st century armor, but it still looks pretty funny to see someone wearing on the battlefield.

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