Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Agile thought: do, learn, change, do learn, repeat. Great stuff in some situations. Not great in national policy.

Someone recently noted that the Agile Manifesto was 20 years old. This was a fancy way of stating the obvious when it comes to experiments: do a little, learn a little, do a little, learn a little, etc.

The computer as we know it today is perfect for this “agile” idea. Type words on the screen. Save them, read them, improve them, repeat. Type a computer program on the screen, run it, learn, change it, run it learn, repeat.

National policy. Sorry. That is not like writing something on a computer screen. Do a little, learn a little, change, do a little, learn a little, repeat. It doesn’t work with national policy about health or anything else at that level. Spend a few billion dollars. Learn a little. Repeat. Nope.

“We know more now” is a pathetic excuse for lack of thought.

An agile nation? Nope. Won’t work. Now, let me read the words I types, change, learn, repeat.