Maybe it's not just in IT that we are failing to learn from past mistakes
I've been thinking about my post on 21st June, and I've come to the conclusion that there are many fields other than IT where we, mankind, are failing to take note of our past errors. The consequences of this are all around us: things are more difficult than they should be, as customers we don't get the service we should, our health is worse than it should be, and sometimes our leaders look really, really stupid. One contact I had in my scientific days - that is, the 1980s - reckoned that mankind had reached its technological zenith around 1970 - the moon landings, supersonic flight, and IT systems were all developed during the sixties. By the mid-eighties we hadn't really moved on. And we still haven't: we may have satellite TV, and mobile phones that fit in your pocket and have (lots) more computing power than an IBM 360/158 (which filled a room), but we haven't really advanced technologically. This has continued for the last forty or so years. Why? My con...