The Eleven Laws of Showrunning [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

The Eleven Laws of Showrunning [pdf]

okbjgm.weebly.com

82 pointsgoose-25 comments

Since the link above is for the "nice version", here's the link to the more colorful, not-so-nice version: https://okbjgm.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/5/0/31506003/11_laws_o...

Do you think it's better? It's twice as long and kind of seems like someone told ChatGPT to rewrite it with attitude but no new content (I know it's from 2016 and the nice version came second).

I prefer his "brass tacks" writing style, but it's also interesting to compare the versions (Grillo-Marxuach is a screenwriter, after all).

> "brass tacks" writing style

You're misusing that idiom - clearly the shorter "nice" version is the one that gets down to brass tacks (focuses on the essentials). It makes the same points in half the length.

Its interesting that he doesn't link to the original version in his Essays section https://okbjgm.weebly.com/essays.html

For anyone thinking the not so nice version is how he really thinks, it seems instead its more of a first draft and the nice version is the one that he now agrees with.

Much better. I can appreciate how I dodged the bullet working in the film/TV business. I forget why I left, but now I remember again. Theatre is very similar btw.

Thanksfully engineering is soo much better, SW being the best to work in. As long as you can stay away from incompetent middle managers

I love this document. I've been sending it to people who've just taken on their first people management job for a few years now - there's a surprising amount about managing a team of 100+ creative people creating a TV show that can also apply to management challenges in the world of software.

I particularly like the way it talks about spreading your vision. As a showrunner it's not possible to be there for every single decision that needs to be made (on costumes, set design, etc etc etc) - so instead you need to get some trusted lieutenants fully briefed on your vision so they can make good decisions like that without you.

It's interesting to read this in the context of founder-mode

> Kind of like Steve Jobs not telling his staff more about the iPod than "It's white and needs a dial"

Isn't Apple infamous for siloing information amongst its departments such that almost nobody grasps the full extent of what is being built?

The last 5 phones have all been so similar that I think everyone must get the idea by now.

It's interesting to see how in some industries there is a LOT of trust in a single person having and executing a clear vision. Creating a completely new idea with complete autonomy, authority and responsibility. Maybe the thing that comes closest is a startup founder, but in established companies there is nothing that comes close even though it's a huge drive for innovation in other industries.

Imagine if software development had the same kind of human direction/vision. Real vision entrusted to a single person with authority to execute it. Not vision that has to be brought to life through influence from playing the company politics and building it to fit some specific KPIs. Some founders might have it, also some videogame producers/directors. For the rest, most software seems to be designed by committee.

Everything would look like Kai's Power Tools

It wasn't bad. Its UI was one of a kind but quite usable, and the suite did its job beautifully.

This is largely how the video game industry works in my experience. (which is mostly software development)

This has been written up on HN before. Someone will probably find the reference.

Link seems dead?

wrt "founder mode" see especially the 8th (negative) and 2nd (positive).

8th does resonate with the bad habit of new founders to spend their time on the visible — fundraising (unfortunately, because in SV hiring capital constitutes actual sales?) — as opposed to working on product (so that their schlep can bring some return on the equity purchase)

I’d say the 5th (esp. comparison to archies) is also relevant as well as the various instances of “exec” ie the partners

[9th on the guardian mode in nerds?]

5th ties directly with the japanese 3 pwns — should I try to find a more STEMmy* way to rephrase them?

On 9C and 9D: the prussian model used to be that when taking strategic decisions, the most junior officers would make the first proposals, and then they'd go around the room and finish with the most senior officers. This has the advantage that it allows for early brainstorming, and trains the juniors to think in terms of bigger pictures than their direct responsibilities, yet doesn't lead to "vetoing" or "inversions" because everyone understands the early steps get things out on the table, the middle winnows down to the efficient frontier, and after the Old Man speaks, the decision has been made.

EDIT: eg, in "Dances With Wolves" most (all?) of the Sioux councils end with someone authoritative declaring "wašté"

* on my charitable-to-bigcorp-hires model of "founder mode", over the weekend I came up with a much more STEMmy description: the founder is probably used to early startup reports, who are high impedance low Lyapunov exponent (it takes a fair amount of effort to convince them what the right goal is, but after that you can leave them alone and they'll execute to that goal), but the bigcorp hire may well be low impedance high Lyapunov exponent (you can't leave them alone, but small nudges keep them on course). Does this make more sense than the livestock analogy?

> Every member of a writing staff is on the hook for the education of the next person below them

speaks directly to development of Human Capital (as the rest of the Law speaks to the potential rapidity of its loss); oddly enough the showrunner agrees with the vice admiral: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41144977

(each on the hook for the education of the next is also a pattern in Jacobs' The Economy of Cities: when a city has added enough new export Know-how[0] to replace some of its old Know-how with imports, that is not only good for the city itself, but also provides the chance for some other, less developed[1], city to learn how to export these fresh imports — and so on down the line)

[0] forgive me for using the german word; it's three syllables shorter.

[1] we once had domestic textile factories; in my step-father's time we were exporting textile machinery to factories in the States; in my wife's student days the machines went to Turkey (as it was then) instead.

I wasnt sure if you’d agree with me that the ideology of meritocracy is at the heart of the issue.. K-H management may be the thread unifying Veblen vs Romer, but i dont think either has really nailed the (Midwestern postNietzsche “ascetic protestantism”) SIGINT aspect behind it all (veblen has stalked it with the evolutionary instincts tho, same for Orwell in 1984?)

(Thats how we get distracted from discussion of designori,strategy,tactics,DDJ,shamans?)

Lmk of any specific questions you might have

[PG is interesting as lowland scottish SIGINT is surprisingly far from the “norwegian” style of “rational inattention”, IMHO, with regards to secrecy esp.]

[one observes, not tangentially, of Veblen’s meandering elocution vs PG’s plain prose]

Meritocracy, in that founder:elect::hired help:preterite?

[TBV and PG are separated both by a century and by EMH]

Where does lowland scots come in? (I had thought this might refer to PG, due to "Bonnie Dundee", but ere Mons Meg and her marrows spake twa words or three, a few clicks leads to a background closer to the daffodil than the thistle: http://cdn.ans.org/about/presidents/docs/john-graham-nn-arti... )

EDIT: ah, there are ancestral links: mentions of kilts and an epigone "Ian Angus"...

Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKoYT4febHM (2m50s)

EDIT2: heavily on one side of the ceremonial/instrumental spectrum, some very neo (2012) Edwardians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avuYx-rjXmk&t=34s (looks like the US Army got rid of "caissons", lyrically at least, in 1956, but here the RHA is still pulling them, in front of the limbers, in the XXI)

designori:managers::JZY:confucius?

(In terms of the hiring process)

Lowland scots: tried to shoehorn into rustic theme

My bad, I'd thought the lowland scots had all the industry (certainly all the equestrian statues!) and the highland were the rustics (with a smattering of London escapees)?

No, you are right..

[some were only rusticated]

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