Den Beste is talking about the Galileo mission today (and with great erudition, too, which is only to be expected), but he made a point while talking about JPL’s errant Mars missions that has bearing on all human endeavor. If you’re wondering about why we need to spend billions on Iraq and why it may take years to do the job, well:
It was the “better, faster, cheaper” philosophy which led to JPL being forced to cut corners on its missions, leading to a higher failure and loss rate. (And the wry observation, “better, faster, cheaper pick any two.”)
If you want Iraq cheaper, you need to choose either better or faster; you can’t have both. If you want Iraq better faster, cheaper isn’t an option.
Also, in regard to what we learned from the Galileo mission:
As someone once put it: we’re still confused. But now we’re confused at a higher level, about much more important things.
Much the same could be said about the difference between Americans pre-9/11 and Americans post-9/11. It’s not really a bad thing.