It's ultimately about practice: Spain's first high speed train was massively over budget, and seen as a boondoggle. If building had stopped there, it would have

It's ultimately about practice: Spain's first high speed train was massively over budget, and seen as a boondoggle. If building had stopped there, it would have been a curiosity, but the government kept asking for more track, and with practice come better results. It's difficult to succeed in early projects of all kinds, but it's not just people that learn: organizations do too. Set up good incentives, and be OK with early failures. And if you lack expertise, but someone else has the knowledge, just hire a few experts away. On most problems where America is very inefficient, it's either a matter of lack of practice or horrible incentives. If there's a cultural failing, it's unwillingness to deal with those bad incentives.