It's easy to run a small team of talented people, it's an entirely different ball game to run a company with 20,000 people
Same with systems. A small team of hackers can work wonders on certain problems with no methodology and some TDD, but imagine 1000 of those small teams, many of them now with below average programmers, all working toward a single vision, that now need to integrate their individual projects, some of which can only be tested once our twice ever due to cost.
I agree it's difficult to run a company with 20,000 people and that's my point. Break it up into many smaller companies with more accountability per company and you'd see a lot more progress. It's very difficult to align huge companies behind a goal and very few are able to do it - I believe Apple is one that does succeed.
Same with systems. A small team of hackers can work wonders on certain problems with no methodology and some TDD, but imagine 1000 of those small teams, many of them now with below average programmers, all working toward a single vision, that now need to integrate their individual projects, some of which can only be tested once our twice ever due to cost.