re: #777 Obdicut

Well, I’m starting my own business, so I’ll get to hire only good people. Including my mother-in-law-to-be, I hope.

One of the reasons that I study WWII so much is that I feel the US Army in the ETO, at any rate, was a great example of a system whereby, even though it had huge flaws, by and large the best rose to the top. There were some inversions, some problems, but it was a hugely successful, vastly complex organization.

I also like Atul Gawande’s books a great deal, especially The Checklist Manifesto— if you haven’t read it, it’s a wonderful book about complexity.

I think that a new science is being born right now, just as efficiency studies was born in WWII. I think we’re starting to realize that systems that are overly complex are self-defeating in the end, and that reduction of complexity is a reduction of risk.

I do have the Checklist Manifesto, haven’t yet looked at it (more in the mood for light reading currently).

Yes - systems that are overly complex are self-defeating in the end.

One agency I worked for, I had a direct line to the guy at the top. We could get moving and hire or fire or take some action within hours.

Then there were those agencies that were so incredibly bureaucratic, with LEVELS of approval needed that would take two months to do what I could do in a day.