> But, it kept them busy, and let them show off, and they can take that all the way to the bank by way of a performance review system that optimizes for Shiny N

> But, it kept them busy, and let them show off, and they can take that all the way to the bank by way of a performance review system that optimizes for Shiny New Things. Yup. At least some of the generated heat can be captured in the form of bullet points on resumes, which can be used as leverage for promotions or new jobs. Perhaps from a whole-system or whole-company perspective the result may be a net loss, but the endeavour may be quite postive for many of the people involved who are making or executing the decisions.