C onstruction projects rarely fail in spectacular fashion. There is no single moment where alarms sound and leaders realize the job is lost. Instead, projects bleed quietly — margin eroding through a series of small, overlooked disadvantages that feel insignificant in isolation. Sun Tzu warned against this exact condition. He did not focus on catastrophic defeat. He warned about incremental loss — the kind that accumulates when leaders ignore minor weaknesses because nothing

T here’s a famous thought experiment in physics known as Schrödinger’s Cat. A cat is placed in a sealed box with a device that has a random chance of killing it. According to quantum mechanics, until the box is opened and the system is observed, the cat exists in a strange state called superposition —both alive and dead at the same time. Absurd? Absolutely. Memorable? Undeniably. Schrödinger didn’t invent the experiment to suggest cats actually live this way. He created it t

M ost folks in construction still think of surveying as something that happens once — early on, before the concrete trucks show up and...