“I’d like to be remembered as an innovator,” he said, speaking from the interior of one of OceanGate’s submersibles. “I think it was [famous American General Douglas] MacArthur that said, ‘You’re remembered for the rules you break.’”
“I have broken some rules to make this,” he conceded. “I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. The carbon fiber and titanium—there is a rule that you don’t do that. Well, I did.”
Well, he’s not wrong. He will certainly be remembered for the rules he broke, but not at all for the reason he thought he would. This will go down as a classic example of why qualifications matter, and that you do not know better than industry experts.