I think there’s something historically unusual going on in the US currently. We got an incredible lead when the rest of the world blew it self up right in the middle of industrialization. Things worked out by default, allowing other parts of the system to half-ass it. Now we have a tradition of half-assing it which seems likely to come back and bite us in the ass as the feedback loop slows down.

Our whole corporate culture is based on the idea that business doesn’t have to plan more than a quarter ahead, because engineering will pull a magic trick instead.