Project wisdom from the old NASA

“If a major project is truly innovative, you cannot possibly know its exact cost and its exact schedule at the beginning. And if in fact you do know the exact cost and the exact schedule, chances are that the technology is obsolete.”

— Joseph G. Gavin, Jr., discussing the design of the lunar module* that landed NASA astronauts on the moon.

Yeah, boss. That’s why we’re late and over budget. You don’t want to be obsolete, do you?

[*] The upper half of which is called, ahem, an ascent stage. We’re all about inspirations to innovation around here.

Via SvN.