

Obamacare's "Man Month" Problem - danso
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/10/21/obamacare_and_the_mythical_man_month.html

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conover
Meta: Is that the whole article? Three short paragraphs in which the author
admits that he hasn't actually read Brooks' book then goes on to restate the
premise? Maybe I should get into writing for Slate...

Edit: Slate blog, I suppose.

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ck2
Also, you could have the most talented coders in the world, but you tie their
hands with this chain of bureaucracy and they won't get anything done:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6585161](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6585161)

Can you imagine having to navigate that to fix a problem? How many different
people you'd have to get on the phone or in contact with via email?

What they needed is a "dictator for a day" at the top of the chain with the
ability to hire/fire and get anyone on the phone immediately for answers.

By the way, California's health care website cost TWICE what the federal site
cost. Maybe that is why it works but wow, that is a crazy pricetag:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6584954](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6584954)

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ThomPete
This is really a problem with most large organizations not only the government
in the US.

The real problem is applying industrial linear thinking to a post-industrial
exponential scenario.

I.e. most large organizations confuse conceptualizing and building the factory
with working at the factory.

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peter303
I'd take one of the well-working exchanges from the states nd scale it up to
the federal level. Use somthing that works. Dont try to fix the complex,
broken one.

