Re:Fuckin' user interface design, I swear
by webmaven on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:38PM
(#26407477)
> So, a company can do dumb things, repeatedly, also if all people working there are bright
> For large organizations, in a way, the whole can be less than the sum of its parts?
They can be, but I don't think it is inevitable.
By way of analogy, large herds of herbivores are arguably much stupider than the individual animals, while insect colonies are considerably more intelligent than their components. Packs of predators (eg. wolves) generally seem to be approximately as smart as an individual, at least so far as hunting is concerned.
Human organizations vary considerably and it isn't hard to come up with examples ranging from 'dumb as a bag of hammers' to 'smart as a whip'. Analogies to various mental illnesses may sometimes apply as well.
> For large organizations, in a way, the whole can be less than the sum of its parts?
They can be, but I don't think it is inevitable.
By way of analogy, large herds of herbivores are arguably much stupider than the individual animals, while insect colonies are considerably more intelligent than their components. Packs of predators (eg. wolves) generally seem to be approximately as smart as an individual, at least so far as hunting is concerned.
Human organizations vary considerably and it isn't hard to come up with examples ranging from 'dumb as a bag of hammers' to 'smart as a whip'. Analogies to various mental illnesses may sometimes apply as well.