Fail early and fail fast!

"Think why your program will fail. That is more important than why it will work." said my first manager after reviewing my first program at work. 

That turned out to be a great piece of advice because cost of fixing things once they are done is high. Makes one a cynic though.

Failing early or detecting problems early, gives you the ability to change course quickly. Identifying the iceberg a little bit earlier would have saved the Titanic.

If the recession had started earlier, it would'nt have looked so bad.

In my college, the architectural and civil department concieved and built a basketball court. After the construction, it turned out the nets were not aligned. Sigh.

At work, sometimes you are faced with the dilemma when you help others who are not really good at what they do. You are in a way helping the short term goals of the project but long term, these buggers might become leads and won't be able to handle higher responsibilities at that position.  The cost of failure at that point would then eclipse the short term gains of helping them.

Is it better to nip them in the bud? I would think so.

I remember reading  a Jack Welch  book where he says firing bad people early on in their careers gives them an oppurtunity to find work that suits them. Nice way to massage your conscience but I don't think it applies to most of us for whom work is mostly a means to a living.