Investors love to hang engineers when things don’t go according to plan, but the reality is that R+D means doing something where the outcome is totally unknown.

Time blows out and things don’t go the way you expect: it’s nearly unavoidable. Something like 30% of projects (anecdotal) are never finished and 85% (from a study) go over time and budget. The whole time, the end of the line seems like it’s just around the corner.

It’s super scary, yes, but that’s why deep tech investment is at an all time low in western countries. China’s dominant attitude - not being scared of it - is also why China is winning across the board in EVs and deep tech.

Perfection isn’t a human trait: actually, holding others to perfection but not yourself is a sign of diagnosable narcissism. Therefore when someone seems to be trying their best, I think it needs to be interpreted in good faith and not as a criminal offence if they don’t meet their mark.