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But they wouldn't do that. They'd call up their defense contractor buddy who did that great system for the DoD that was only 2 years late and triple the origina
by jfoutz 14y ago
But they wouldn't do that. They'd call up their defense contractor buddy who did that great system for the DoD that was only 2 years late and triple the original budget.
- pilom 14y agoBeware survivor bias (in this case I guess it is the converse). The only DoD contracts you ever hear about are the ones that are over budget and behind schedule. That doesn't mean that the vast majority of them actually aren't great engineering on time and under budget.
- jfoutz 14y agoI would completely agree that there are projects that are on time and on budget. The argument i should have made in a less pejorative way is, Defense contractors are in the business of selling consulting services. Fundamentally, government contractors economic incentives are more closely aligned with billable hours than shipping good software. When you sell the artifact itself, it has to be good. when you sell time, customers just have to feel good about how the time was spent.
- YuriNiyazov 14y agoThey might in the next election, after having read the Nate Silver article and this thread.