Perhaps the author has only worked on simple, predictable outcome, projects but in my experience (personal and in generally observing our industry) failure and

Perhaps the author has only worked on simple, predictable outcome, projects but in my experience (personal and in generally observing our industry) failure and restarts are often the path forward to success. I lived through the period of AI in the 1980s, have been a vendor of expert system tools for Lisp machines and the Apple Macintosh, and when MCC was being founded the founder Admiral Bobby Inman gave me a tour of the place. I also joke about the outlandish claims and thought the AI winters were well deserved but I also believe that the state of our field and business now is very good and those rough times in the 1980s and 1990s are what helped get us to where we are today.