This is a new summary of the real-life case that inspired me to go do PhD studies in information systems. I wanted to understand why IT incompetence still could exist to this degree in this day and age after all the knowledge the world had developed about good IT and software practices over decades of experience. Of course, I quickly found out that IS research had already figured most of this out, and that perhaps, people were just people and crappy organizations were just crappy organizations, and perhaps that's something that will never change because bell curve distributions exist for almost everything.

If all people could be selfless, humble, intelligent, competent at everything they ever try to do, AND be people of integrity, I'm sure many of the world's problems would disappear, in addition to just IT problems. People suck, organizations suck, societies suck, and we all suck in our own way. I think organizational research like I'm trying to do still tries to point us towards a better path nevertheless, but sometimes it's a throw your hands in the air thing. Some people will never care.

Needless to say, I'm no longer focused on researching this topic, as it seems really well-researched already. But it's still interesting to see that this particular example still pops up in a news report now and then. There are still plenty of other big examples that pop up every year, but this one seems to have staying power to stay in the news media.