
The World’s Fastest Man (2014) - tosh
http://comstocksmag.com/longreads/cover-worlds-fastest-man
======
mikecarlton
His company was responsible for repairing the 10 freeway after the Northridge
earthquake. They got a bonus for finishing early, but there were lots of
stories of him personally harassing inspectors and pulling inspector flags
(where re-work was supposed to be done).

I know that one section in particular that they repaired was done really
shoddy -- there was giant lip between pavement sections that would make your
car shudder like it hit a giant pothole. Everytime I drove over it I cursed
their horrible work and was pissed that they earned a bonus for doing half-
assed work.

~~~
captain_perl
On the other hand, his work on the MacArthur Maze (mentioned in the article)
saved the Bay Area transportation grid.

That one project makes up for every alleged wrong he did in his entire
lifetime:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Maze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Maze)

Some other titans you may want to read about who achieved great success
through sheer force of will:

\- Frank Robinson, Founder, Robinson Helicopters (#1 helicopter manufacturer
in the world by unit sales)

\- Chuck Yeager: "The X-1 wasn't a plane. Chuck Yeager was the X-1." (The
world's first and only combined test pilot/rocket mechanic. That combination
was needed to break the sound barrier and survive.)

\- the Florida airport consultant/GM who saved San Jose from bankruptcy by
saving $2 billion in overruns on Terminal 3.

~~~
ambicapter
A less than favorable review of Chuck Yeager's performance and attitude
handling the NF-104 air/spacecraft:
[http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_11.html](http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_11.html).
And politics as usual
[http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_13.html](http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_13.html).

------
mmaunder
I would caution current and future CEOs about misunderstanding this article.
Quoting Jim Collins:

Interviewer: The CEOs who took their companies from good to great were largely
anonymous. Is that an accident?

Jim Collins: There is a direct relationship between the absence of celebrity
and the presence of good-to-great results. Why? First, when you have a
celebrity, the company turns into “the one genius with 1,000 helpers.” It
creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the CEO. At a deeper
level, we found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has
to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for
themselves. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have an ego. It means that at
each decision point—at each of the critical junctures when Choice A would
favor their ego and Choice B would favor the company and the work—time and
again the good-to-great leaders pick Choice B. Celebrity CEOs, at those same
decision points, are more likely to favor self and ego over company and work.

Source: [https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-
to-g...](https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-
great.html)

------
vijaybritto
Construction being done so fast? Something shady. The article never once
mentions anything negatively. All full of praise and awe. Abusing and
extracting unfair amount of work with no consequence on the company or the man
is just toxic. They fire burned out employees and are proud about it. This is
terrible management.

They are treating people so badly and the author is worshipping them for that.
Incredibly wrong.

Measure the happiness of the employees and you can figure out if this speed is
worth it.

------
colotj
Great bio on a man who seems to have mastered the tenets of charismatic
leadership that are crucial in the male-dominated construction trades where
everyone is looking for a role model.

This will not be surprising to most, but it's not C.C. Myers at 76 years old
building these projects. It's his field personnel -- Superintendents, Foreman,
Apprentices, etc. The secret sauce is the on-the-ground leaders and their
adherence to business process to get results.

Of course this was not discussed in the article, and as a result, renders moot
discussion of performance improvements based on his means & methods.

------
sandworm101
His real secret: he pays his people. He can phone someone and say "send me
some guys" and the do because they know they will be paid. Most chiefs screw
around with subcontractors, delaying payments and asking for reductions....
going bankrupt when it suits them. Pay people and they will work.

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mingabunga
Came here to read about Usain Bolt, and instead read a great article about
another brilliant guy.

~~~
goatherders
Same.

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siruncledrew
Is it usual to get bonuses for finishing early on gov projects?

Do other construction companies realistically struggle to finish early because
of their inefficient structure or is some other compulsion factor at play?

~~~
colotj
Speaking to your question on construction companies ability to complete
projects on schedule -- Inefficient structure, more specifically human
resource inadequacies, may be the most apt description of what causes missed
schedule and financial targets.

It's important to understand that the construction industry is a well trained,
but poorly educated workforce. That translates to a lack of comprehensive
planning and foresight. The better companies have solved this problem by
identifying individuals with the right mix of "global thinking" and field
experience and charged them with managing projects.

Lesser companies still win work (especially during economic boom times) and,
as there are so many, serve as a constant reminder of how straightforward
projects can go awry.

------
mindB
The way he drives his workers is very different than a common orthodoxy I see
around here:

He demands 12 hour days, and he gets more efficiency than other contractors;
definitely different than the view that there's some optimum level of work
<=40 hours/week after which returns diminish so much as to not be worth it.
Maybe the game industry's perpetual crunch time isn't as insane from a
strictly financial perspective as it seems at first blush?

~~~
ggm
The <= 40 thing wasn't some random feel-good. Time and Motion and Operations
Research people looked at what happened in wartime rush-rush production, and
the evidence they collected was (from what i read) pretty good that its a law
of diminishing returns followed by a downturn in safety and quality.

My only cite is indirect: Angus Calder "the people's war" but I would be
surprised if this isn't well documented in the real literature.

Also, some of the outcomes very quickly become externalities: nobody notices
the bodge job until 5+ years later, and people die young of non-specific
stress related diseases which don't get attributed to work.

~~~
QuercusMax
The 40-hour thing was for assembly-line type work if I'm not mistaken.

It's entirely possible for construction-type work where specialized workers
have to take turns (backhoe guy digs a hole, workers prep with hand tools,
concrete is poured from cement mixer and then smoothed out with hand tools,
lather, rinse, repeat), that there's enough built-in downtime / break time
between steps that workers can handle longer shifts without reduced
productivity.

~~~
taneq
> there's enough built-in downtime / break time between steps that workers can
> handle longer shifts without reduced productivity.

In the mining industry it's referred to as 'mine time'. The majority of your
12-hour day is spent waiting for other necessary things (competing work,
isolations, hazard analysis, approvals) to happen so a 20-minute job can take
three hours.

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Inetgate
It page return 403. I also search wayback machine and google, but there is no
cache for it.

~~~
Willwhatley
I am able to navigate to the page just now.

In case there is still a problem:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20180827010038/https://www.comst...](https://web.archive.org/web/20180827010038/https://www.comstocksmag.com/longreads/cover-
worlds-fastest-man)

------
justinator
So I'm curious: the insanely low bid he gives, the insane timeframe he's able
to deliver, and the enormous bonus he collects at the end. Is that shared with
his workers, or is that all kept for himself?

Rushing bridges and tunnel jobs seems... risky.

~~~
gameswithgo
It is shared in the sense that he can't make payroll without the bonus.

~~~
justinator
I guess I don't understand what's in it for the guys doing the actual
construction: longer, stressful days on a tight deadline, and less billed
hours because the project takes _far_ less time. More people on site seems
like a major headache. The articles talks about pulling these guys from other
companies, so I'm guessing that they have work to do somewhere else.

The "little league contribution" as justification to bust your ass just seems
a little suspect.

