The typical project design time for a large company like IBM - and they keep track of this - is a little over four years.
My base understands the Mexican wall is going to get built, whether I have it funded here or if I get it funded later, that wall's getting built, OK? One hundred percent. One hundred percent it's getting built. And it's also getting built for much less money - I hope you get this - than some people are estimating.
Law Number XXIV: The only thing more costly than stretching the schedule of an established project is accelerating it, which is itself the most costly action known to man.
I don't want projects to take 10 years to set up. That adds to the cost.
If I read the right script, if that script needs $5 million, if that script needs $50 million, I don't care. If I read a project that's beautiful, that I really want to make, whatever it needs, it needs.
I have these ideas that people go 'Oh, that's cool. I'd pay to see it, but I'm not gonna give you $25 million.'
Publicity doesn't really get me anything. Clients are not going to hire me for a $100 million building because I have a brand. They really want the product.
Companies come to us because they think we can quickly turn around things in 3 or 5 months and that's really our sweet spot. When you're a large company, you need projects that are several hundred million worth.
There was a lot of risk taken in the Mercury and Apollo eras, and we don't take those risks anymore. We've designed the systems to eliminate risk, which makes it take forever and cost too much money.
Contractors always pursue large profit, the customer - a high-quality end product in due time and at a lower cost. This struggle never ends, but this is natural.
I did not acquire the franchise merely so people could experience 'Duke Nukem Forever.' That was, sort of, the toll to pay to give 'Duke Nukem' a chance at a future.
An expert is the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
