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No organization with more than 1 person is immune from the effects of optics. If you think so, you may be blind to it.

It definitely gets worse as the organisation grows. There isn't much room to hide in a five person company whereas it's hard to be seen in a 5000 person organisation.

In that case it's the optics with the customers that matter.

Which can be more rewarding to satisfy than the optics of just management. But still needs to be managed appropriately.

Nah, I think optics can matter at startups too.

For a lot of the ones that fail, yes.

It's a matter of scale. "Optics" (as a separate concern) don't matter at orgs that are small enough that everyone can see everything (and/or has full trust in the people who do). Visibility and trust don't scale, hence the necessary evil of pageantry