Check the price tag

On The West Wing, in “Guns Not Butter,” Charlie—who I see as the series’ protagonist—tries to reach a pal to ask him a simple question and triggers a memo from the Secretary of Defense, CC’ed to the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of State.

Delegation is a basic principle of engineering. Do what you need and don’t tell you the details.

But sometimes you need the details.

Would you like me to arrange for someone to pick you up? It would be my pleasure. Did I not mention that we’ll charge your account $2,500 for the service? I’m sorry, but you should have asked. Continue reading