[lbo-talk] Maximise or satisfice? (was:stupid americans?

joanna bujes jbujes at covad.net
Tue Sep 28 16:33:34 PDT 2004



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>On Tue, 28 Sep 2004, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
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>>If I were to accept, as you do, that managers and workers differ, I would
>>need to identify factors that explain that difference. For example, that
>>managers have X, Y and Z and workers do not, or the other way around. Or
>>something of that sort.
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The difference is that worker's have to deal with the product and managers don't. Workers make the product, implement the service, etc. Example, the company for which I work was putting out a very high-falutin computing product, which was really an amalgam of disparate pieces, which some mucky muck decided should be sold as a "system." Well, it wasn't a system, there was zero time spent on integrating the various pieces, making sure they didn't make conflicting demands on the underlying O/S, etc. There was zero time making sure they even worked together. There was not even any testing of the "system" because it was assumed that if the pieces were tested separately (successfully), they would also work together. Well, they didn't. Who found out? Not the five layers of managers, not the engineers, and not the testers. It was some tech writer, trying to document something that realized that they didn't. Tech writers are often the canaries in the mine.

So, that's basically the difference. It doesn't matter how smart you are or if you went to Yale. If you are running a computer company but don't understand how computers work, and you don't listen to those who do, there are going to be problems. Constantly.

Meanwhile, the yertle the turtle workers prop it all up.

Joanna


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