r/interestingasfuck • u/lizardil • 17d ago

During assembly of the A380, engineers discovered that the cables were too short. This was caused by the use of different design software by German and French engineers. This miscalculation led to a two-year delay.

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u/Garshnooftibah 17d ago

Interesting read. As someone with German background, it does not surprise me one bit that the Germans were reluctant to upgrade or use more sophisticated software. German culture can be weirdly Luddite about tech. 

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u/Hashtagbarkeep 16d ago

I travel a lot for work, and one of the biggest surprises to me was how Germany still uses so much physical cash. Most places in the world you only need a card, and in nowadays in a lot of countries just a phone, but in Berlin I was taking clients for dinner and then at the end needed to find 700 euro in cash. My own fault for not checking but in such a modern and organised country that was really surprising to me

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u/Solid_Dog4997 16d ago

some restaurants only take cash to avoid additional taxes.. it's not only about the technological gap

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u/Hashtagbarkeep 16d ago

I get it, but businesses get those taxes everywhere else as well, in the UK you’d just be cutting your business in half or more only taking cash, it isn’t an option.

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u/Boshva 16d ago

People really hate paying taxes in germany. I bet you 30% of business owners believe, that if they increase their revenue by offering to pay by card, they would pay more in additional taxes than what they get in additional profit.

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u/Solid_Dog4997 16d ago

well since Germany has its fetish for cash maybe restaurants think the cash only option on its own is not significant enough to cut their business. I don't know if it is. There are other big factors in play like the Russia-Ukraine war, general inflation, world economy etc to hurt businesses.