The PIC in Everyday Situations

The PIC in Everyday Situations

 

Principle of Imminent Collapse suggests that everything in our experience is on the edge of failure and all it takes is The Nudge to precipitate the cascading failure.

 

I first posed the Principle of Imminent Collapse in 2005 and it has manifest thousands of times worldwide ever since. It has been a specific to me several times but mostly I have avoided dire consequences by understanding it. 

 

Once on a long business trip I had driven about 600 miles to South Carolina. I was there for two days driving and parking in numerous spots without incident. On the last day when getting ready to drive home. My brake pedal went straight to the floor. Fortunately I was only moving at about 2 mph.  Only minutes before that total hydraulic failure I had had my vehicle moved to where I would load my equipment. The man who drove it had experienced not problems. 

 

A master cylinder brake line had been corroding at a fitting unobserved for quite some time. It was at that moment the metal burst leaving me without any brakes. 

 

This all transpired in a parking lot of a transit agency with no other vehicles immediately nearby. A few minutes later I would have been on the highway cruising on home. This catastrophic failure could have been deadly. 

 

The repairs had to wait until the next day after having the vehicle towed to a repair shop. It took all day to get done from having to locate parts and fabricate the shape of the pipe. It turned out the shop replaced the failed section of pipe and all the others which were equally old. 

 

When I got home I had my usual mechanic inspect every hydraulic line, the calipers, master cylinder and the ABS block. I was not going to have a repeat occurrence of an identifiable weakness. 

 

In advance of some upcoming interstate road trips I decided my existing four tires would be replaced before I headed out. They all had good tread depth but might harbor hidden flaws which could manifest the Principle of Imminent Collapse.

 

The 4-digit number imprinted on the sidewall on the tire, 4114, means the tire was manufactured in the 41st week of 2014. Specifically, my tires were nine years old. I had been pushing the envelope for a while. Every mile brought them closer to one of the four experiencing tread separation or a blowout due to failure of the steel belts. 

 

Being I am the originator of the statement of the Principle of Imminent Collapse itself and am fully aware of the perils of ignoring it, I spent the morning waiting in the installation of four new tires. 

 

I had to fight the reluctance of replacing four good looking tires. I had to resist the temptation of procrastination. I had to rationalize the fact that 95% of tire failures occur in the last 10% of its service life. 

 

Yes, a nail or shard of glass can fail a new tire. A pothole can crack the seal at the bead. A manufacturing defect may be present. However, all of those events are beyond the control of good management of the Principle of Imminent Collapse and the Nudges which brings on the failure. 

 

If one watches for the imminent failures they can be averted. The failure might not be stopped but horrendous outcomes can. 

 

Similarly, the phrase “a stitch in time, saves nine” is an early wisdom and admonition to heed the PIC and its consequences.