(as doubtless you've noticed too)

I too recall my experience in a ~ field, in big science. That is where I (too?) originally came to believe that: in a scientific field (any.. I thought!) ... there's little way for an incompetent to achieve significant power over a 'project'. That is: yes, a project whose priority seems utterly silly.. will occur via the inescapable Dilbert phenom. But (I thought) in the carrying out of the design, implementation: Physics Rulez - It's the Law. Of course too, 'information theories' aren't so simple as (most) physics.

Still and all - naive as was my first take, I saw few exceptions, those usually in form of the occasion engineering choice which 20/20 suggested was a bit Rube Goldberg. (There was this beam integrator..) But then, these are disciplines which are not much about 'managing people' and are therefore inherently simpler to grok than most occupations.

I can only go by hearsay here and elsewhere about your summary. What does not surprise me about that though, is that I never had many illusions about business (even before it became bizness, post B n'B). Maybe because I had worked for a few and had observed closely how the power was wielded VS the BS told to employees, especially in large "meetings". (And, I had read some Sinclair Lewis, others, early-on.) Rational thought is not a frequent homo-sap activity, I had decided.

Apparently when you started out - 'IT' was a lot like big science (research) in that everyone indeed meant to do a job somewhere between well-enough and perfectly - a few things merited that last "Ten-9s" effort.

Now: add medicine, ed-ja-Cay-shun and lots more IMhO. No way to 'prove' such generalizations we see, but I hear similar 'generational' comparisons across a wide range of people and fields. There may be more to our decline than Steve Allen's Dumbth. Personally I can't tell if cause/effect/attitude is separable-out: but I know sloppy work whenever I encounter it. (Except in allopathic medicine: often enough you're dead and don't get to See the sloppy work or frequent flat-out Mistakes.. I've worked around 'research' MDs and noted the quality of their 'deductions' yada yada)

But cheer up: despite the smarmy overuse of TLAs and daily-raped words like excellence and innovation - no rag-tag bunch of MBA-Babbits, bereft of any experience of a liberal education, knowledge of history (or caring about their bone-ignorance, either) Can long stifle the tiny percent who actually accomplish worthwhile aims. 'Least that's my religious opinion. Natch I can have No Idea.. where the best gravitate in your field(s) today - but I see that they are around us; some of them speak English well enough that even I can appreciate their thought processes.. The Best rarely seem obtuse or speak that way.


Cheers,

Ashton