GreyThumb.blog offered an interesting comparison of poor animal breeding practices and the fall of Enron, which I previously posted on in some detail. The essential theme was that individual selection on chickens for the chicken in each generation who laid the most eggs, produced highly competitive chickens—the most dominant chickens that pecked their way to the top of the pecking order at the expense of other chickens. The chickens subjected to this individual selection for egg-laying prowess needed their beaks clipped, or housing in individual cages, or they would peck each other to death.
Which is to say: individual selection is selecting on the wrong criterion, because what the farmer actually wants is high egg production from groups of chickens.
An institution’s performance is the sum of its groups more directly than it is the sum of its individuals—though of course there are interactions between groups as well. Find people who, in general, seem to have a statistical tendency to belong to high-performing groups—these are the ones who contribute much to the group, who are persuasive with good arguments.
I’ve been thinking about the statistical tendency to belong to high-performing groups, and I keep running up against a dearth of data problem. Information about the performance of top-level organizations is easy to come by, and individuals make efforts to communicate information about their own performance, but teams which are the unit of action don’t seem very legible to third parties.
I wonder how much of a motive this is for acquiring startups instead of driving innovation internally; a startup often is only the unit of action, and has gone through several rounds of assessment by investors.
An old post of Eliezer’s, “Selecting Rationalist Groups”, seems highly relevant. Some quotes:
I’ve been thinking about the statistical tendency to belong to high-performing groups, and I keep running up against a dearth of data problem. Information about the performance of top-level organizations is easy to come by, and individuals make efforts to communicate information about their own performance, but teams which are the unit of action don’t seem very legible to third parties.
I wonder how much of a motive this is for acquiring startups instead of driving innovation internally; a startup often is only the unit of action, and has gone through several rounds of assessment by investors.