This really resonates with me. I have seen the “buy before you build” attitude turn into “buy because we can’t build”. I know correlation is not causation and there are always plenty of other things going on... but it sure seems like the pride in our work dropped off and we were on the wrong side of every tipping point.
I've seen this at a few places now. Learned helplessness is definitely a thing and a lot of it comes down to an inability or unwillingness to hire broadly. When you're hiring Bolt Turner #3, they might know a little bit about turning bolts (but might not, either) but expect everything that isn't a turnable bolt to be handed to them. But the screw turners and the pipe welders you've also hired don't think a working ecosystem of tooling is their responsibility either and they're not really equipped to build it either, so the only option becomes to buy. And at that point you lack the breadth and the depth of knowledge to effectively choose the right thing to buy, and the outcome is as if by dart board.
There's a reason to hire specialists in this industry, but we conflate one-track ponies with specialists and it's to our detriment.
