In the New South Wales Knowledge Management Chat room this week, an interesting topic on project managers emerged. A senior executive had observed project managers coming off projects where they had experienced a variety of major issues, challenges and where turning around for their next assignment with a view that 'it will never happen again' only to find out they have the same or similar experiences on the next project. The senior executive was curious about this phenomena and suggested the project managers operated under a sense of optimism. His project managers believed that things would always get better and that the same concerns they had on the last project could never happen again. The senior executive suggested they needn't be pessimistic, better to be more realistic and he asked what did the network think about his position and what had others experienced. Having spent the last 30 years working with project managers in theatre and live entertainment, I had also been