Getting into Rob McNamara
So, Rob McNamara. Yeah, that McNamara. For the longest time, his name just floated around in my head, you know? Vietnam, Ford, World Bank… kinda heavy stuff. Didn’t really think much past the headlines, figured he was just another one of those historical figures you read about.
Then one evening, I was just channel surfing, trying to find something to watch. Stumbled upon this documentary, “The Fog of War”. Didn’t even realize it was about him at first. But there he was, this old guy, talking straight to the camera. Got me hooked.
I actually sat through the whole thing. Didn’t check my phone much, which is rare for me these days. Just listened. He laid out these “lessons” from his life. Some of it felt a bit like justification, maybe, but a lot of it… man, it made me think. Especially the parts about complexity, and how you can have all the data in the world and still get things horribly wrong.
It wasn’t like some big revelation, you know? More like a nudge. Started me thinking about some stuff I was working on at the time. Had this project, felt like we were drowning in spreadsheets and reports, but still felt like we were flying blind sometimes.
So after watching that film, I did a bit more digging. Didn’t go crazy, just read a few articles online, looked up some quotes attributed to him. Found stuff about his time at Ford, implementing systems, statistical control. Interesting contrast to the later stuff about the limits of rationality.
What did I actually do with all this? Well, it wasn’t like I started running my life based on McNamara’s lessons. But it did reinforce something for me. It made me double-check assumptions more. When someone throws a bunch of data at me now, I try to step back and ask, “Okay, but what are we not seeing? What context is missing?”
- Question the data.
- Remember that smart people can be wrong.
- Acknowledge things are messy.
Sounds simple, right? But it’s easy to forget when you’re in the thick of things. Seeing that documentary, hearing him talk about massive decisions with incomplete pictures… it was a good reminder. A bit chilling, maybe, but useful.
So yeah, that’s my little journey with Rob McNamara. Didn’t expect to get much out of it, but ended up being a pretty thought-provoking experience. Just goes to show, sometimes you find useful stuff in unexpected places.
