during my brief stint as a consultant during a merger, I was talking to a director, explaining what needed to happen to keep the department running well.

He said “Maybe we dont want it to run that well.”

I burst into tears.

What had I been working for? What had I been breaking my back for?

Fastforward. In the Project management book of knowledge they define ‘quality’. It’s what is desired by the person/group paying for it.

your opinion doesn’t come into it. Do what your told.

Thats the lot of the modern knowledge worker.

So John Henry went up against the steam engine. That stupid stupid steam engine that plodded along, doing nothing but driving nails into the railroad track.

My project manager mind says, I bet there was a whole new step with this steam engine nail-driving technology. I bet it drove in a lot of crooked nails.

I bet John Henry did not.

but quality was not what was desired.

I wonder. i bet there is the boss-ego in the industrial revolution taht can’t be ignored.