The author makes a good point. In all likelihood the pyramids were built that way and, again in all likelihood, it did have the effect of a pyramid being ready whenever a pharaoh died. The way these facts are presented tells us something about a lot of things. Not the least interesting of which is the ever-present and ever-intriguing issue of perspective.
On the surface, this story tells us how Agility helped the people building tombs for pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Another layer down, it tells us about how large groups of people organize to become agile. Deeper still is a story of motivations and perspective. Think of this as a practicality sandwich on philosophy bread. The outer layers are important but I'm going to focus on the meat.
How did the ancient Egyptians learn to become Agile when it took us so many decades of lean thinking? It's amazing, really.
So while you are sitting there being all astounded by the wisdom of the ancients, let me just add this one little piece of info to the puzzle:
There were no massive cranes back then. There were no steel girders. There was no such thing as temporary scaffolding that could suspend one of those stones for a substantial period of time.
Knowing that, the question has to be asked. How else would they have built a pyramid? What structural, architectural, or engineering tools could they have used to do anything else but build it in shells?
Once you answer those questions, it becomes apparent that they had to be agile. They had no alternative. There were no tools available that would accommodate a big-batch approach in the first place. Being ready to bury a pharaoh who died before his time probably was not even on anybody's mind.
...at least until the first time one died young. Then, maybe, someone said "Hey! It's really handy we've been building these tombs this way, now we can just drop him off in the center and start working on the next guy's pyramid!"
There is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians' agility was a consequence of their wisdom or foresight. Quite the opposite, agility was mandated by the context in which the supposedly agile people did their work. There is a nugget of wisdom in that fact.
I think it is this: People are not naturally agile. Don't try to control the person, instead control the context in which they work. Make agility easier than the alternative and the people will do the hard part of the transition for you.
