Three Anecdotes from the DARPA Autonomous Land Vehicle Project

This was a large applied research effort that presented many opportunities for unusual experiences. In one such experience, I was called in, at the last minute, to help improve our ALV proposal. The proposal was a 300-page document that segued smoothly from problem description to corporate capabilities and managerial plan, omitting any mention of technical approach. This taught me a rule of thumb I have seen validated many times: the larger the project (in dollars and scope), the poorer the technical proposal. In a second experience, I was demonstrating a dynamic programming algorithm at a quarterly review.