Sunday, July 05, 2020
Variant on Parkinson
Via Twitter, an interesting variant on Parkinson.
Attributed to Jonathan Schwartz:
The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power WITHIN the institution rather than the power of the institution itself.
Parkinson said the same thing less concisely, with more detail. Bureaucrats plan their ascent by picking subordinates who will squabble among themselves. Non-squabbling subordinates will work together to bring down the boss and move up to his position.
But Parkinson also outlined the purpose of the institution itself, which is more important than the moves within the institution.
Every organization tries to grow exponentially.
Growing exponentially is impossible, but an organization can cause untold death and destruction while it's trying to do the impossible.
Every organization claims to solve problems, and may actually solve one or two problems AT THE START, to gain traction. After it has traction, it switches to CREATING problems so it can pretend to solve them by CREATING problems so it can pretend to solve them by CREATING problems so it can pretend to solve them by...
Each "failed" attempt "justifies" more budget and workforce. See? We're achieving the goal, but not fast enough. We need more money and power!
At some point this exponential POSITIVE FEEDBACK bumps into the NEGATIVE FEEDBACK of reality, or uses up all available resources, or bumps into a competing organization destroying the same territory. Now we're in Darwin instead of Parkinson.
Labels: Parkinson, Shared Lie
¶ 5:56 AM
