Visiting the Hoover Dam feels to me like visiting a rift into an alternate timeline—one in which we attempt enormous, absurd, starry-eyed projects… and achieve them, under budget and years ahead of schedule!
I’d love to better understand the forces which made that possible.
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The same forces that can achieve such goals struggle to figure out what the goals should be. Top-down societies can do amazing things and amazingly wasteful things. They struggle to take account of what might have been and are prone to corruption.
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Some people in SF/around the world have formed a Progress Science/Study community on Slack. I don’t know if you will find the answer to this over there but tremendously useful dialogue. I am hosting a meeting on Nov, 8th - if you would like to join.
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Under budget if you think of $$$ only.
Not if you consider 96 human lives lost (official count) in the construction.
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So you're saying that it's impossible to correctly budget, and allow time once any sort of regulations are introduced?
Lack of labour regulations, theft of native land, hunger for power instead of efficiency, lack of concern for water rights and natural environment, and the commodification of human life.
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So to paraphrase that last part, people have to die to deliver major projects on time and budget? For most of those you mention, I'd ask can't we plan and budget accordingly to make allowances for them?
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A recent obsession of mine!
Two recs for you:
amazon.com/Construction-H
And pmi.org/learning/libra
Interestingly, the Hoover Dam was the creation of six companies that merged because none had the budget or talent to do it alone. Was literally named the Six Companies 🤓
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Not to mention the 30 years of political negotiations and surveying that happened before construction!
I very much enjoyed this book about the process:
smile.amazon.com/Colossus-Turbu
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