‘Move Fast And Break Things?’ Not On The Waterways

Back in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, introduced the now-famous phrase “move fast and break things” to epitomize his company’s strategy. The “things” he wanted his company to “break” were not physical, but outdated ways of doing things. The phrase has since become shorthand for techno-capitalism’s work of “creative destruction,” in which new products, techniques, companies and ways of doing things are quickly developed and scaled up at speeds unthought of in the “old” days of pre-internet manufacturing.

The most visible example of a company that “moves fast and breaks things” has been Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has developed and scaled up rocket production at a speed no one thought possible previously. President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to bring this speed and scale to shipbuilding, through strategic partnerships with advanced Finnish and South Korean shipbuilding companies, and to military processes, in order to break up bureaucratic logjams and quickly ramp up production and deployment schedules.

What a sad contrast lock and dam infrastructure presents to this new world of scale and speed. It’s January 2026, and the Inland Waterways Users Board has not yet been reconstituted since it was suspended last spring. A new report released by Waterways Council Inc. asks “why costs for U.S. inland waterways capital projects (locks and dams) escalate, timelines for completion continue to slip and economic benefits to the nation from projects’ execution are consistently delayed.” The Corps of Engineers has also been hamstrung by thousands of early retirements, putting many urgent projects at risk. Forget “moving fast and breaking things.” Our waterways infrastructure renewal is barely moving at a crawl.

Of course, there are physical constraints, just as there are with the renewal of shipbuilding. It’s also important to add that increases in support from Congress have indeed been forthcoming in recent years, thanks to tireless advocates and friends of the waterways in both parties. Not everything can be done at the speed of SpaceX.

It’s not primarily physical constraints that have stretched out project timelines and ballooned budgets on the rivers. Rather, cost overruns and delayed deliveries have been a failure of process, on the one hand, and a failure of national will, on the other.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Speeding up and streamlining the renewal of our unparalleled but sadly crumbling lock and dam infrastructure—once the envy of the world—would be a fitting way to put America first.