I presume we're referring to the Mayan end of the world trope for 2012 (debunked, wonder of wonders)

I bet typos crept into the stone carving process, but I don't think there's a ctrl + z shortcut on a chisel, so they'd have left it in and hoped for the best.  :-/

I dunno what we're referring to - you're the one who brought it up.

If I was carving stone, I'd trace it out first, then carve it absolutely flawlessly.

Well.... yes. I'm presuming /I'm/ talking about the Mayans then. :C

But what if your tracing was incorrect though you thought it was spot on? Maybe some prankster back at head office has decided that a 9 year shift in the end of the world is just the most hilarious thing to mess with the minds of those people living c4500 years into the future.

You can still make flawless mistakes. 

 

That's why you don't let head office make such decisions - their job is to hire the experts, not to dabble with things they don't understand - and you bring the provisional design to the relevant high priests for review and approval before anything goes into production.

Also, you sure you don't mean Sons of Anarchy? They were big nine years ago...

Their job is to hire the experts, ignore them, dabble in things they don't understand, and then blame the experts when their daft plans blow up.

Pretty much describes my experience of head offices.