It’s important to understand the intended context of these rules. They’re mostly about how to rise within established hierarchies.
Upvoted. This actually reveals how dysfunctional established power hierarchies often are, and how often they encourage pointy-haired boss types. Ironically, these supposedly hard-nosed, Slytherin types are easily mesmerized by sales folks peddling the latest technology “innovation” or management fads, because they do not understand their job very well, and are often more focused on stroking their own ego than actually accomplishing important things.
Of course, Robin Hanson’s prediction markets hold great promise here, because they make it feasible to spread info within the organization, rather than channel info towards the top. But really, this is a feature of modern infotech and business processes which could be exploited by other systems, such as “learning organizations” as defined by Peter Senge. Applying rationality to the workplace and similar orgs is yet another underexplored area here at LessWrong, although there has been some exploration of basic issues such as groupthink.
I’m not sure whether the same sort of pathology also occurs in politics, but similar issues have been invoked to explain the behavior of the Bush Administration, especially wrt. the Iraq War and response to Hurricane Katrina.
Upvoted. This actually reveals how dysfunctional established power hierarchies often are, and how often they encourage pointy-haired boss types. Ironically, these supposedly hard-nosed, Slytherin types are easily mesmerized by sales folks peddling the latest technology “innovation” or management fads, because they do not understand their job very well, and are often more focused on stroking their own ego than actually accomplishing important things.
Of course, Robin Hanson’s prediction markets hold great promise here, because they make it feasible to spread info within the organization, rather than channel info towards the top. But really, this is a feature of modern infotech and business processes which could be exploited by other systems, such as “learning organizations” as defined by Peter Senge. Applying rationality to the workplace and similar orgs is yet another underexplored area here at LessWrong, although there has been some exploration of basic issues such as groupthink.
I’m not sure whether the same sort of pathology also occurs in politics, but similar issues have been invoked to explain the behavior of the Bush Administration, especially wrt. the Iraq War and response to Hurricane Katrina.