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Figuring out what to do is the hardest part. Engineering is typically the least significant part of the success or failure of a company.

by x220 8y ago

riazrizvi 8y ago
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth", said Kennedy, and all the senators rushed the podium, slapped him on the back, and popped champagne, as they realized the hardest part was done.
- dependsontheq 8y ago
  But it was the hardest part wasn’t it? Nobody since then managed to get that commitment for a space program.
  - riazrizvi 8y ago
    And if only Napolean or Hitler had managed to get enough 'commitment' for their plans to conquer Europe, they would be sitting pretty right now? Yeesh.
  - jcheng 8y ago
    The Soviets tried and failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_crewed_lunar_programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_crewed_lunar_programs
- gammarator 8y ago
  ... Yes? Kennedy got them to fund NASA at a level that's never been seen since: https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/s3fs-public/BudgetDISC%253B.jpg https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/s3fs-public/BudgetD...
- arbie 8y ago
  Not parent, but in every successful project I have been part of, the technical challenges were always a small slice (perhaps less than a quarter) of the main effort. Getting organizational approval (which usually boils down to acquiring buy-in from management) and picking the path to progress (with occasional course-correction) are the main contributors to success. This isn't to discount the hard work involved in completing the technical tasks, but commiting _to_ begin something along a certain development vector is, indeed, the hard part.
  - gaius 8y ago
    Getting organizational approval (which usually boils down to acquiring buy-in from management Why not just... not employ the people you need to fight in order to get anything done? How does the organisation and its shareholders benefit from employing full-time professional obstacles to progress?
duderific 8y ago
Maybe in the short term. In the long term, a company can collapse under the weight of its own technical debt, when it can no longer innovate effectively compared to the competition.
- matwood 8y ago
  If a company makes it to where they are collapsing under technical debt, they have already made it much farther than most startups.
someguydave 8y ago
What do you mean by "figuring out what to do?" If you mean "write a detailed specification for every component in the system", then what is engineering exactly?

Figuring out what to do is the hardest part. Engineering is typically the least significant part of the success or failure of a company.

by x220 8y ago

Figuring out what to do is the hardest part. Engineering is typically the least significant part of the success or failure of a company.

riazrizvi 8y ago

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth", said Kennedy, and all the senators rushed the podium, slapped him on the back, and popped champagne, as they realized the hardest part was done.

dependsontheq 8y ago
But it was the hardest part wasn’t it? Nobody since then managed to get that commitment for a space program.
- riazrizvi 8y ago
  And if only Napolean or Hitler had managed to get enough 'commitment' for their plans to conquer Europe, they would be sitting pretty right now? Yeesh.
- jcheng 8y ago
  The Soviets tried and failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_crewed_lunar_programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_crewed_lunar_programs
gammarator 8y ago
... Yes? Kennedy got them to fund NASA at a level that's never been seen since: https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/s3fs-public/BudgetDISC%253B.jpg https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/s3fs-public/BudgetD...
arbie 8y ago
Not parent, but in every successful project I have been part of, the technical challenges were always a small slice (perhaps less than a quarter) of the main effort. Getting organizational approval (which usually boils down to acquiring buy-in from management) and picking the path to progress (with occasional course-correction) are the main contributors to success. This isn't to discount the hard work involved in completing the technical tasks, but commiting _to_ begin something along a certain development vector is, indeed, the hard part.
- gaius 8y ago
  Getting organizational approval (which usually boils down to acquiring buy-in from management Why not just... not employ the people you need to fight in order to get anything done? How does the organisation and its shareholders benefit from employing full-time professional obstacles to progress?

duderific 8y ago

Maybe in the short term. In the long term, a company can collapse under the weight of its own technical debt, when it can no longer innovate effectively compared to the competition.

matwood 8y ago
If a company makes it to where they are collapsing under technical debt, they have already made it much farther than most startups.

someguydave 8y ago

What do you mean by "figuring out what to do?" If you mean "write a detailed specification for every component in the system", then what is engineering exactly?