“You lost the crazy people. They went to tech.” @ssankar explains how the American defense industry was once built by founder figures and attracted obsessive engineers like Kelly Johnson, who built 41 aircraft in his lifetime and treated engineering like an artistic pursuit. After the Cold War, the industry consolidated from 51 major defense primes to 5 and shifted toward conformity and financial engineering instead of real engineering. As bureaucracy crept in, the system calcified. Colossus Members have early access to Shyam’s new conversation with @patrick_oshag on @InvestLikeBest, where he explains how that shift reshaped the defense industrial base and why he believes America needs to “get a little crazy back” to rebuild its industrial strength. Members can listen now in their Private Audio Feed. Subscribe here: