And even the best-run campaigns suffer from duplication of effort and wiggling lines of authority. Then the completed project got lost amid the turmoil following the Quayle nomination. I left New Orleans disappointed that all my work had seemingly gone to waste. Alas, I suspect that many of my other projects died as soon as they left my hands. Whether your work finally serves any purpose, you must do it quickly.
Academics are ill-equipped for fire drills.
For one thing, many of us got through our graduate coursework by cadging extensions and temporary incompletes. And as journal editors and conference organizers know all too well, political scientists rarely grow more punctual with age. This is no slap at the profession. Tardiness may stem less from languor than from diligence. One reason why political scientists take so long to finish their work is that they go to great lengths to master the literature and doublecheck their findings.