Digital start-ups may seem efficient, but are really terrible role models for running a country

It’s a dangerous way to build and fulfil a long-term vision for a country

I magine if Ireland ran itself like a digital start-up. What if the Irish government applied the principles of Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup to ‘fixing’ the country (whatever that means)?

For those who’ve missed the trend in ‘lean’ thinking, the aim is to use short product development cycles and ‘fail fast’, to reach what’s called ‘minimum viable product’, which is the name for the least-worst thing that actual humans will tolerate from ...