Bullshit Mountain sounds a bit like a situation where there’s a convergent focus for costs to be externalized onto. It’s hard to fix because local incentives are always towards not just ignoring the problem, but actively making it worse. This can on very rare occasions be “fixed” with massive investments of energy (with an opportunity cost that may or may not be worth it). Sometimes, though, an organization should have a finite lifespan, and the correct response to Bullshit Mountain is to manage the decline with harm-reduction.
More generally, it seems to me that this post subtly frames things as though the only organization is the one being focused on. Spinoffs and emigrés can often have perfectly good lives elsewhere.
Bullshit Mountain sounds a bit like a situation where there’s a convergent focus for costs to be externalized onto. It’s hard to fix because local incentives are always towards not just ignoring the problem, but actively making it worse. This can on very rare occasions be “fixed” with massive investments of energy (with an opportunity cost that may or may not be worth it). Sometimes, though, an organization should have a finite lifespan, and the correct response to Bullshit Mountain is to manage the decline with harm-reduction.
More generally, it seems to me that this post subtly frames things as though the only organization is the one being focused on. Spinoffs and emigrés can often have perfectly good lives elsewhere.