A better metaphor: Developing software is like trying to get Classical musicians to play good Jazz.

It is impossible to provide developers with written-out music for their parts. You need to teach them how to play with the band; you cannot tell them what to play.

Lee SF's approach (earlier letter) actually works: Close, detailed, constant contact. Poster SR's attitude is okay, but his (her?) approach stinks.

You need to lead developers through a project to a mostly-successful, mostly-on-time finish. And they will see that it can be done, and they will find out what a good project feels like.

Then the developers will function better on the next project. Of course, new developers always come along, and good developers always leave to start their own bands, so that you always need to repeat the basic process.

The idea that big projects may be impossible is wrong. You just need to know specifically where you are headed. We have not read "Dreaming In Code" (great title, will read). But, with respect, "A Personal Info Management Program To Dazzle..." sounds vague. Like trying for "World Peace" or "Energy Independence."

No project ever can achieve that sort of goal. Stay away from the abstract talk, and get the job done. Many of us are having success with big software projects. They never are easy, but they certainly are possible, and the products work very well.

1. In the USA, we have state lotteries which suck up money from the people who can least afford to lose money.

2. In the USA, we have voluntary 401k retirement plans now, rather than paternalistic defined benefit plans, which would (used to) provide retirement income despite people's instant-pleasure tendencies.

(I am not sure who actually benefits from this change in our system. It is supposed to provide more choice, but it probably only inflicts more old-age poverty.)

Are these examples of neuro-economics? Or psycho-economics? Or what? Are these the kinds of problems neuro-economics seeks to address?

Will neuro-economics just confirm what we already know about human nature?

And Polio too! This country was built on God, Guns, Guts, and kooky psuedo-scientific neo-superstitious nonsense.

I won't give my little girl any vaccine unless you can prove that it didn't come from a flying saucer. The Bill of Rights guarantees my kids the right to die young, doesn't it?!

Retch!

Which side can we be on? There are more than two sides here. And we are on none of them, actually.

This is a little like the battle between Julius Caesar's assassins, and Marc Antony, and Octavian, and several other sides, just before the start of the Roman Empire.

I wish we were not going there. That way lies madness. US Senate, please get your act together.

Probably too late... But someday, Americans will wake up to his evil. And always after that, Americans will think of W.Bush's god-awful Texas accent as The Way The Devil Talks. And Texans themselves will change their speech, in shame.

Lord, I hate to hear him talk. He can't say, "Good morning" without lying, and without causing death and destruction.

Who are all these hostiles? Are they the same people who post on other parts of Salon? I hope not. I will go back, and look at the signatures.

The seacoasts will drown in saltwater, The American west and south will dry out. But the Great Lakes will thrive.

Move to Detroit or Cleveland now. Plenty of cheap real estate. And we have our act together managing the lakes with the Canadians.

Jackass baseball owners George Steinbrenner and Tom Monaghan, and Pompous, Obtuse Comissioner Bowie Raccoon drove me away for a couple decades.

I went from attending thirty games per season to zero games in fifteen years.

Do not believe that baseball fans are forever. MLB is capable of driving good fans to football or bowling or fencing...

Visiting an old pal a couple weeks ago, talking politics, the guy says, "In this house, we admire Jack Bauer." I ask, "Who is Jack Bauer?"

The guy and his wife are amazed that I do not know! They laugh, and make comments about how out of touch I am, and what a rich story this will be to tell all their right-wing friends.

It's true! It's not just Murphy Brown anymore. Americans believe "24." They use it in serious discussions of the real world. Post-Reality America!

Everybody in the G.W. Bush group, including G.W. Bush himself, sounds okay for five minutes at a time. But none of their stories add up. Is five minutes enough?

Maybe. Scooter is an obvious, embarrassing fraud, if you pay attention. They hope we can't pay attention.

I do not care about this twit Scooter Libby. After all this preposterous silliness, would you hire him? No. And I would not do business with whoever hires him after all this preposterous silliness.

I wish I did not have to do business with the fools who hired him before, the obvious jackasses (yet extremely dangerous jackasses) in the White House.

Proponents of policing our borders against people who defaulted on their early-21st-century mortgages got a big boost from the President today.

"These people need to get what they deserve," said the President. "Imagine how much worse-off they would be now if interet rates had been high when they entered into their inflated mortgages."

President Gingrich went on to extol the opportunities available to saavy real estate investors today.

Andrew, maybe you should run this piece under King Kaufman's heading, while the King is on vacation. Serious! Sports people would comment eloquently.

Diagoras!

You mentioned fencing. I do not know which rules change you mean. Please e-mail me. King Kaufman knows my e-mail. Please e-mail him, and ask. Touche!

timbuktom, Official Latin Consultant to King Kaufman

American Social Studies teachers might think about using the Citizenship Test with their students. It might make a good sememter project. And students could take the actual test at the end of the semester.