I agree with the basic setup, although I think their is an optimal amount of slack to maximize the effectiveness of noticing subtle things. To notice these things you need experience, and time to reflect on it. Too little time is probably the main bottleneck in most cases, but in some cases it will be too little experience. IE Hiring a hundred slack-specialists to hang around with 100% slack-time is not likely to be productive.
Maybe I am mis-reading you, but I think of the “noticing subtle things” is something like, after you put out all the fires you later think “many of these problems seem to stem ultimately from the way that...” or whatever. But without having seen the problems that could not have happened.
I agree with the basic setup, although I think their is an optimal amount of slack to maximize the effectiveness of noticing subtle things. To notice these things you need experience, and time to reflect on it. Too little time is probably the main bottleneck in most cases, but in some cases it will be too little experience. IE Hiring a hundred slack-specialists to hang around with 100% slack-time is not likely to be productive.
Maybe I am mis-reading you, but I think of the “noticing subtle things” is something like, after you put out all the fires you later think “many of these problems seem to stem ultimately from the way that...” or whatever. But without having seen the problems that could not have happened.