Wanna drag?

[Mike O'Dell]

all i can say is thank goodness *somebody* is interested
in unalloyed excellence. no focus groups, no bag-biting
bean counters, no "optimization engineering",
nobody whining about "is this really necessary". 

just go do something insanely difficult
*supremely* better than anyone else in the world
and make no apologies about it.

SR-71, Concorde, Thrust SSC....

all cut from the same bolt of cloth by people who didn't
care that second place was also available if the going
got too tough.

we used to be like that. if seeing a real Saturn V doesn't
make the hair on your neck stand up for at least a week,
you have the soul of a brick.

i wish i could find an online version of the essay Burt Rutan wrote
for Aviation Week's Centennial of Flight issue.  unlike the other
essays proudly extoling the virtues of progress and such, Rutan demanded
to know why the hell the best aircraft ever designed were in freakin'
MUSEUMS and not flying! and where did innovation go?

a truly righteous screed indeed

  harumph
  -mo