Getting to the Future – It’s all about Standards

By standards, I don’t mean watered-down statements that can only be published after four committees, 21 subcommittees and lord knows how many experts agree on their vocabulary and punctuation. That sort of standard sets the bare minimum as a lofty goal. The bare minimum doesn’t cut it. I mean the sort of standards that we hold ourselves to as human beings. The shoot-for-the-moon, I-can-do-anything mindset. Fourth-graders have it. The men and women behind the tech scene’s startups certainly have it. So why don’t our high standards ever seem to penetrate the government’s mindset? Thomas Friedman writes in his New York Times column this week about the need for our next president to leave the bare minimum in the dust and shoot for the moon. It’s worth reading.