Speaking of poor execution and consequences, Dan Gillmor has a point we should absolutely pay attention to:

"What do major seaports, gas pipelines, the Windows operating system and your local phone company have in common? They are just a few of the choke points of the modern world.

Choke points are risky, to society and the economy. They'd be less of a threat if we worked harder at preventing their formation in the first place, and if we spent more time planning for their inevitable disruption..."

I'm 100% with him on this point. The rest of this short article is very much worth your time. One more key excerpt:

"In a world where rationality prevailed, we'd launch a new kind of Manhattan Project to remove the energy and communications choke points. We'd actively discourage a software monoculture that leaves us so open to cyber-vandalism and corporate power hunger. We'd work harder to establish more competition for telecommunications, not let the industry consolidate to a tiny number of players.

We don't live in such a world.

Sometimes there's value in learning the hard way. Humans respond to crisis, though the higher the risks, the more danger in assuming we'll muddle our way through our higher-stakes woes. And we emphatically don't want a centrally planned economy.

But why do we allow ourselves to indulge in short-term indifference, poor planning and lack of action when an obvious problem is taking shape?

When we do, we invite trouble, and we inevitably get it."

We do. We are. We probably will.