I've been writing for fun and to learn and have always been curious about construction productivity.
I don't think contractors are dumb. But I do think that they don't accumulate productivity efficiencies the way other industries do. There's a rule in economics that every X units of a product that gets made, manufacturers tend to improve by Y% percent efficiency. Because they learn by doing, and the more experience the industry accumulates the more chances it has to make continuous improvements off gradual innovation.
Moore's Law is probably the most extreme example. But it's well known in virtually every industry. For example Toyota kept getting repeatedly better at building cars more efficiently and reliably because they carefully observed the process and kept making improvements.
The problem with the contractor model is this doesn't happen, because you don't have large firms that can exploit economies of scale. At anything above lower management, every one is in their own isolated fiefdom where they can keep making the same mistakes and not learning from each other. If one contractor is 20% more efficient, it's difficult to grow fast into a national brand and export those productivity improvements.
Simple example. Copper plumbing is still widely used in most parts of the country. Pex plumbing is strictly superior. It’s much cheaper, easier to install, more reliable, and less likely to damage the framing. Despite being around for decades, most contractors still use copper.
If you really want to see gains in construction, I think you'll need a large Amazon-like org where every one on site works directly for the company and they're all centrally managed. As soon as you're outsourcing something, you should no longer expect to have it done efficiently. This is fine when it's something ancillary to your business. But when you're a homebuilder, especially a homebuilder aiming to achieve sustained productivity improvements, everything being done on site is core and should be directly under your management team.
There are also diseconomies of scale in residential construction, partly for reasons described in the original post. Having many layers of management is inefficient when you're dealing with work that involves a lot of customization and homeowner input.
>Despite being around for decades, most contractors still use copper.
No, they don't. Pex is ubiquitous in single-family and smaller multifamily construction now. Copper is used in larger and nonresidential projects where the plumbing codes require it. The idea that professional plumbers and homebuilders haven't heard the news yet that Pex is cheaper is silly.
https://smartchoice.plumbing/pex-plumbing-disadvantages-what...
(I think your overall point is a good one though.)
Which parts of the country? Not in my area.
Short construction seasons are somewhat favorable to it. Dry in can be quicker. A trade base familiar with the necessary fire blocking makes it practical. Same with designers and inspectors.
The sun belt tends toward platform framing. Being the sunbelt, construction tends to be more year round.
I find that concept pretty fascinating. Here in the PNW we don't typically see balloon framing, but even so the dry-in time is still really quick. A two-story house can be framed up and have roof sheathing on in a week or so, and in another week have the roof and tyvek on. Even if the entire process was done in a downpour it still doesn't take long after that before it's dry enough to start interior work.
Balloon framing and platform framing are different, exclusive terms. Author uses it as a catch-all for stick framing throughout the article.
The rest of the article seems fine and insightful, but it's totally reasonable to see that incorrect terminology usage as an indicator of knowledge gaps. And the author appears to be more involved with cryptography and related concepts, so it tracks.
Carpenter acquaintances in California make vicious fun of carpenters in The East (which probably includes most of what easterners call "The West") continuing to use Skil saws long after geared designs, with a high-speed motor running perpendicular to the sawblade axis, have proven overwhelmingly superior by every measure.
Yeah, that's a problem.
Usually, next up is some handwaving about building homes from shipping containers because they're rectangular.
One minor comment: balloon framing is not a synonym for light wood framing, it's a (mostly archaic) version of it. Balloon framing features long exterior wall studs that extend up multiple stories, as opposed to modern "platform framing", in which the studs stop at each floor.