What is a cargo cult?
The cargo cults Feynman described were based on natives from the islands of Melanesia in the South Pacific. During the war, the islands of Melanesia served as a staging area for the military where they built temporary operations. The natives observed all the ways in which the allied forces landed the planes and learned the techniques. After the war, the planes stopped landing and the cargo disappeared. The cults decided that they must perform the allied rituals of landing planes and bringing out the cargo, and so they built runways, control towers, bamboo “headsets” and military uniforms. Apparently they have learned the “rituals” very well, and continue to perform them in the hopes of bringing back more planes full of bountiful cargo. Unfortunately, no matter how well they duplicate the ritual, there is no result. Waterfall: The Worst Cargo Cult As I wrote this post, I realized that the Waterfall process is actually the worst cargo cult of all. Waterfall software projects fail at asto
