Capitalism, Disconnected from Human Needs

From Doctor Zhivago:

"Deals were made on the scale of the turnover of a rag and bone merchant in a flea market and their pettiness led to profiteering and speculation. No new wealth was created by these transactions and they did nothing to relieve the squalor of the town, but fortunes were made out of the futile selling and reselling of goods already sold a dozen times over."

Hero.

In a park near my home is a plaque that reads:

"We honor all those who fought for our community."

There is probably a similar plaque near you. I would be more proud to live in a community with a plaque that read:

"We honor those who fought against our community when it was wrong."

On Snowden.

The Gulf Between Planning and Reality

Like all organizational models, waterfall is mainly a theory of collaboration. By putting the most serious planning at the beginning, with subsequent work derived from the plan, the waterfall method amounts to a pledge by all parties not to learn anything while doing the actual work.

Thoughts on failures of management, how failure needs to be an option for new entities, how the preferred method for project planning in Washington increases the liklihood of disaster, and more.

Via Arnold Kling's blog, which had this relevant observation:

When a large organization, such as government or a legacy media organization, undertakes a new initiative, they are in effect starting a new business. Most start-ups fail, so that failure is in fact the most likely outcome.