Nor is it just unemployment insurance systems that are doomed by overcomplexity. I once talked with a senior official in state government about a project one of her departments was about to bid out. This one had been in development for twelve years, and it was about to be released to vendors to bid with a $600 million price tag. When I told her I thought it would likely fail, she replied, “Do you think we don’t know that? The last seven IT projects in this state have all failed.”
