On capacitors, queues, and the strange conviction that people are the one component in the universe rated for continuous operation at maximumThere is a small, boring, deeply unglamorous act of engineering humility that happens millions of times a day inside the objects you depend on. Somewhere in the phone charger on your desk sits a capacitor stamped 50V. The circuit it lives in never exceeds 30V. Nobody made a mistake. Nobody over-ordered. A grown adult with a degree deliberately paid for 50 volts of capability and then chose, on purpose, to use 60 percent of it. This is called derating,...