I have a number of issues with this metaphor for preparedness for change (or rate of change?)

One is the assumption that the same linear scale can be used for measuring progress in a range of clearly different disciplines.

Another is in the way the it is interpreted. In accepting the metaphor, it could well be argued that when businesses are about to hit the wall, their speed is not an asset. There is no time to reflect on the situation, nor steer clear of inevitable disaster.

My feeling is that an Occam’s Razor approach to finding a metaphor is poor at best and at worst, smacks of political rhetoric.

Catchya later

This post was mentioned on Twitter by zecool: Choo-choo! (Where do YOU ride?): “Time to get off the train” by @hjarche http://is.gd/4XbwN...

I think a better metaphor would be the “tracks”. Big business has the fastest tracks maintained and built right to their door. As a result, they have the fastest track to progress.

Small business must try to deal with their track being just a bit out of reach, so they have a fast train to a certain point, but then must be creative in getting the goods (knowledge and technology) to their door.

The civil society makes sure that there are spurs off the main track. Even if these spurs are a bit slow and in need of some help, at least it gets to a larger number of people. They just need to be patient.

The government train has the nicest tracks around, although they don’t go to the places that they necessarily need to go. However, this is a very efficient train, so it doesn’t matter if it is going anywhere, as long as it can prove that it went SOMEWHERE. Meanwhile, the train employees would just like someone to plan out the track and END at some point.

Education keeps having the tracks ripped up and relaid. Sometimes this means that the train will get to where it needs to go, but for those on poorer or more isolated routes, it might just go around in circles. Of course, then the passengers blame it on the conductor and engineer, who are just trying to keep the train on the tracks.

The international track goes only so far, and then it stops. There is no coordination, and the track owners of one railroad won’t speak with the track owners of the others. When they do, it still takes time to move from one set of tracks to another.

The political system train can’t decide where to lay the track. It stops at their friends houses, but doesn’t connect to others. As a result there are hundreds of miles of tracks planned, but nothing is actually laid out because no one can agree on a system.

Finally, the legal train builds up, then takes down tracks. The piece meal track system means that there is no coordination with actual walls between some, but bridges that link others. As fast as the political system is laying out track, the legal system is rearranging it.