Hacker News Reader

I think in this structure people only think locally and they are not concerned with the overall mission of the company and do not actively think about morality of the mission or if they are following it.

View on HN

In my experience, front-line and middle managers will penalize workers that stray from their explicit goals because they think something else more readily contributes to the company’s mission.

Kind of sounds like a traditional public company is a constitutional monarchy, not always the best but at least there's a balance of interests. While a private company could either be an autocracy or oligarchy where sucking up and playing tribal politics is the only way to survive.

Anyone tried setting up a modestly sized tech company where employees are randomly placed into various seniority roles at the start of each year? Of course considering capabilities and some business continuity concerns…

Could work with a bunch of similarly skilled people in a narrow niche

That's what David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs is all about! Modern companies as medieval-style fiefdoms where mid-level managers expand their domains to justify their salaries, not because the org demands it

Reply on news.ycombinator.com