Black hole projects

This is a great article on Black Hole Projects. This is the sort of "Change the world" type projects which all large tech companies seem to be required to embark on every few years - in this case it's a project at Microsoft called NetDocs -- which suck up lots of resources but never amount to anything useful. I've seen more than a few of these and (when possible) I try to avoid them like the plague - I definately prefer the "Skunkworks" projects. While it's true that Silicon Valley success is built on the many failed ideas that came before it, a bit part of the culture of failure is failing fast and Black hole projects are antithetical to this. This article makes an excellent guide to knowing when you are about to go over the event horizon.