I wouldn't be surprised if Bob has an easier time making the right call without second-guessing himself when things go sideways.
In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position to break the chain of events leading up to a disaster.
Do you think astronauts (or people making decisions on the ground) have a tendency to make the wrong call when things go sideways? They train exhaustively for just about any possible emergency, and if they can't train the panic out of you, you do not go to space.
You can argue about the hubris involved in the Columbia or Challenger disasters, but in the heat of the moment, I would trust the person who has trained their entire life and was selected from a pool of thousands for their supreme skills, talent, and temperament. These are not nervous nelly academics we're talking about here.
This is exactly what Col. Chris Hadfield, former commander of the ISS and general type-A++ person, describes in his book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything".
It's insane how prepared they are. In fact, it was hard for me to learn many lessons from the book, because the astronaut experience is so different from every day life. I just don't get to try things 1000 different ways and debrief with fellow geniuses every time. Real life seems to involve quite a bit of muddling through with barely adequate experience.
A good read if you want a glimpse into the mind of the ultra-high-achiever, crazy work ethic, moustachioed Canadian hero.
That's my point exactly... They didn't learn to make those snap decisions in an MIT classroom, they learned them through thousands of hours of hands-on, practical simulations and real life events. Just like Bob...
In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position to break the chain of events leading up to a disaster.