Fast

Fast Examples

• BankAmericard. Dee Hock was given 90 days to launch the BankAmericard card (which became the Visa card), starting from scratch. He did. In that period, he signed up more than 100,000 customers. Source: Electronic Value Exchange.
• P-80 Shooting Star. Kelly Johnson and his team designed and delivered the P-80 Shooting Star, the first jet fighter used by the USAF, in 143 days. Source: Skunk Works.
• Marinship. Shipyard construction began promptly after a telegram from the U.S. Maritime Commission. The first ship was completed 197 days after receiving the telegram. Source: Marinship on the Fast Track.
• The Spirit of St. Louis. In 1927, Donald Hall and Charles Lindbergh designed and built Spirit in 60 days. Source: Ryan Airlines gave Lindbergh wings.
• The Eiffel Tower. Built in 793 days and became the tallest building in the world when completed in 1889. Source: Eiffel's Tower.
• Treasure Island. Built as a 400-acre man-made island in San Francisco Bay between 1935 and March 1937. Source: San Francisco Fair: Treasure Island.
• Apollo 8. Decision on August 9, 1968; launch on December 21, 1968, 134 days later. Source: Apollo Spacecraft Chronology.
• The Alaska Highway. 1,700 miles built in 234 days in 1942. Source: The Alaska Highway.
• Disneyland. Brought to life in 366 days. Source: Under Construction: A look inside Walt Disney's Disneyland.
• The Empire State Building. Construction started and finished in 410 days. Source: Empire State Building.
• The Berlin Airlift. 277,000 flights over 463 days supplied 2.2 million Berlin residents. Source: The Candy Bombers.
• The Pentagon. Construction decision to completion in 491 days. Source: The Pentagon.
• Boeing 747. Program start to first aircraft completion in about 930 days. Source: Boeing 747: A History.
• The New York Subway. Original system opened in 4.7 years; modern extension timelines are far longer. Source: The New York Times.
• TGV vs California HSR. French high-speed line in 1,975 days versus California's multi-decade timeline. Source: On the Fast Track.
• USS Nautilus. First nuclear submarine entered service 1,173 days after decision. Source: Cold War Submarines.
• JavaScript. First prototype implemented in 10 days in May 1995. Source: Brendan Eich's history of the language.
• Unix. First version written in three weeks. Source: UNIX: A History and a Memoir.
• Xerox Alto. Full GUI computer project kicked off by a bet and shipped rapidly. Source: Alan Kay.
• Shenzhen. Added 1 million residents in a year (22% growth). Source: PopulationStat.
• iPod. From hiring Tony Fadell to shipping in roughly 290 days. Source: Tony Fadell.
• Amazon Prime. First version implemented and announced six weeks later. Source: The making of Amazon Prime.
• Git. Self-hosting in 4 days; Linux release support in 17 days. Source: LKML.
• COVID-19 vaccines. SARS-CoV-2 genome to first Moderna batch shipped to NIH in 45 days. Sources: Genome publication, Moderna sequencing update, Efficacy announcement.

San Francisco proposed a new bus lane on Van Ness in 2001 and opened it in 2022, around 7,600 days later. Sources: delay coverage and opening coverage.

Please send more entries with sources: patrick@collison.ie.

What's Going On?

The physical infrastructure projects listed above occurred before 1970 to a disproportionate degree. Why? Patrick links several hypotheses and readings:

• Marc Dunkelman on Penn Station: Politico.
• Alon Levy on construction and operations slowdown: Pedestrian Observations.
• Lynne Sagalyn on Ground Zero plus Ed Glaeser review: book, NYT review.
• Herbert Kaufman on red tape: book.
• Philip Howard report plus George Will column: report, column.
• American Government: Brief Version: reference.
• Mancur Olson plus Francis Fukuyama on institutional drag: Olson, Fukuyama.