Disparate Impact

I'm fascinated by the I.T. wreck that is Healthcare.gov. Those who know me, know that I have a sick fascination with disasters that seem to have arisen, at first glance, from unbelievable stupidity. "How could they do that?" is always the question in my mind, particularly when the stupidity is committed by people who seem... intelligent.

One of the interesting things about this particular mess, is that the Obama team, by most accounts, ran an absolutely brilliant I.T. operation as part of his last presidential campaign.

So, I wonder, why did he fail at one and succeed at the other?

My first thought was that, "campaigning, not governing, is his gift". And that seems to hold. A lot of people have noted it before me.

You might think that "running a campaign" would be something like "running a country". But the first can lean more on division and illusion, and the second requires more cohesion and delivery of results.

And the delivery of the wrong results has a way of shattering illusions. Which may partly be why the federal government kept delaying decisions and announcements... which meant the delay of technical specs... when time was of the essence.

Of course, it's hard to write specs
when your project's so complex
that no one's quite sure whether
it can ever fit together.