--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- "Robert J. Chassell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 5 Jan 2004, Gautam Mukunda > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said > > In other words, the Bush Administration has limited > > the numbers of > > people available to the Coalition Provisional > > Authority and to > > contractors. It has placed a handicap on past US > > success. It has > > made a US defeat more likely; a US victory more > > expensive. > > The reason there are limits on the number of people > there is _logistic_. The Bush Administration is > desperately trying to squeeze as many people as it > possibly can into Iraq. The "long pole in the tent" > is that we are currently at capacity for the number of > people we can _support_ in Baghdad. That's the issue. > That's also the reason why the odds that I'm going to > be able to go have dropped - just because they can't > support any more personnel over there right now. > > Snip
>Similarly, in the Pentagon right now the >planning staff is doing that not because they lack >people (although they could always use more) but >because if you doubled the number of people they had, >they would _still_ work those hours, because the >amount of work _to be done_ is effectively infinite. >So you do everything you can, and hope that's enough. >Which is what we do as well-- Is it not better to do a few thing right thn many things wrong? In software we see this all the time. Programmers working 100 hour weeks for sometimes months at a time. In the end they are less productive than if they had simply worked 40. If the thing is worth doing, it's worth doing right, but if you overtax your resources you end up with a failure anyway. Unfortunatly this truth seems to be lost on the A-type workaholics who our society elivates to positions of power. I hope that time will tell, and that this very important lesson can eventualy be learned....again. Jan "Hope start with believing that today is not as good as it could be." _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
