the ideas pile (6)
Anyone who could feel the building shudder and hear the sound of a muffled explosion would shortly after probably also hear a chorus of groans and sighs erupt from the members of the production team. Mike was in charge of the small part of the plant responsible for sanity-checking the product against the various stresses the outside world would throw at it, and he heaved the heaviest sigh of anyone, for every time this disaster happened, it meant his job in particular was about to get a lot more stressful. The processes done in the testing chamber were some of the most sensitive in all the plant, and whenever the figurative boat got rocked hard enough, the equipment would fail spectacularly and an appreciable chunk of their precious output would be destroyed.
Mike had occasionally wrestled with some of the higher-ups about outfitting the testing chamber's equipment some of the new explosion-dampening material one of their supplying companies had developed. Each past time they had so argued, however, he had had to concede, because although it would save most of the necessary repair work and lost output from each serious failure, it would also be expensive and increasingly difficult to maintain, as all complicated technology was bound to be... and the bosses would always decide that the risk was worth keeping the process simple and easy to modify.
Most times, an explosion in the testing chamber would mean Mike would have to fend off whichever several workers decided to complain to him that day about the decision and demand that he push for the change harder. As the new damage reports came in, though, showing record high numbers of units ruined, Mike grew increasingly conflicted: maybe this would be enough to force the decision to better fortify their equipment. On the other hand, would his department really benefit from this so-called advance, or would the extra hoops they'd have to jump through limit some important potential that they already had?
I seem to have the most trouble choosing phrasings for the opening sentence / first paragraph. No matter how clear the core idea seems to me, it's difficult to figure out how to frame it to make the most sense / flow best while reading.
Mike had occasionally wrestled with some of the higher-ups about outfitting the testing chamber's equipment some of the new explosion-dampening material one of their supplying companies had developed. Each past time they had so argued, however, he had had to concede, because although it would save most of the necessary repair work and lost output from each serious failure, it would also be expensive and increasingly difficult to maintain, as all complicated technology was bound to be... and the bosses would always decide that the risk was worth keeping the process simple and easy to modify.
Most times, an explosion in the testing chamber would mean Mike would have to fend off whichever several workers decided to complain to him that day about the decision and demand that he push for the change harder. As the new damage reports came in, though, showing record high numbers of units ruined, Mike grew increasingly conflicted: maybe this would be enough to force the decision to better fortify their equipment. On the other hand, would his department really benefit from this so-called advance, or would the extra hoops they'd have to jump through limit some important potential that they already had?
I seem to have the most trouble choosing phrasings for the opening sentence / first paragraph. No matter how clear the core idea seems to me, it's difficult to figure out how to frame it to make the most sense / flow best while reading.