NASA has competitors. The competitive landscape is dynamic, and solving a difficult problem only gives you a head start. A head start is a great thing, it has

NASA has competitors. The competitive landscape is dynamic, and solving a difficult problem only gives you a head start. A head start is a great thing, it has founded incredible businesses, and it is enormous fun to be the best. It's sad, because whatever exceeded customer expectations today (so that they think it's incredible, magic, they can't believe it, how did you do that man) won't work tomorrow, when their pesky expectations have habituated to it. "New" is intrinsically time-sensitive. What have you done lately? Here's Joel essay Where there's muck, there's brass http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/12/06.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/12/06.html