Robert Moses On Completing Projects

“Once you sink that first stake, they’ll never make you pull it”
– Robert Moses, The Power Broker by Robert A Caro, page 207

Robert Moses built most of the highways, parkways, bridges, tunnels, and parks in and around New York city.  His most effective tool was to lie about the costs so that he could start the project.  Once the project was started he knew that the approver’s refusal to admit a mistake and the sunk cost fallacy would allow the project to continue to completion.

Moses’s method is a clear moral hazard – start a project and the approver has to help complete it, or admit that they made a mistake by giving the initial approval.

Does the project cost more than expected?  Keep going.

Will the project take longer than expected?  Keep going.

The project no longer makes sense?  Learned that the project won’t solve the problem?  That the solution isn’t cost effective?  Keep going.

Depending on which article you read software 45-90% of software projects are late, cost 15-50% more than expected, and have a 20% chance of not delivering the expected value.

I once joked about a company that “started projects on time” but never had the resources to finish anything.  Unfinished projects drain resources and make it harder to finish any other project.

Because as Robert Moses knew, once you start, projects keep going.