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Comment by beprogrammed | Hacker News Reader

And if it's an effective method of selection, then those companies will thrive, if instead it's a poor method those companies will fill up with busy workers and sink under there own weight.

I look forward to seeing which it is.

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Regardless of the outcome it will be spun as a success for the executive team, or if positive spin is impossible they will find a scapegoat or other mechanism to downplay their own responsibility.

You're too optimistic. Companies that are big enough will inevitably do this because it appeals to management, which forms a cohesive and insular culture inside them, and because it can be sold as a cost savings. These companies will inevitably find ways to survive by exploiting their size and power, and so they will be held up as models, and everyone smaller than them will be under pressure to follow their example. The only way it will someday "fail" is if it falls out of favor with management, maybe because some celebrity CEO bashes it in a bestselling book. But after that CEO and his book pass out of the limelight, it will come back, until it falls out of favor again, and so on.

I work at a company that I think is probably big enough, and in a safe enough market that it can't fail. It might not keep up with its peers but competition in entrenched industries makes it hard for a company to fail once they become entrenched. Kind of like barnacles on a ship. The worst that could happen (from an employee perspective) would be being acquired, with the resulting consolidation eliminating redundant jobs.

And many companies are like this. I joke that when our company is trying to make a decision, the first (and often only) thing the executive team asks is "what are our competitors doing?"

Right on... Time spent reflecting, taking a walk to think things through... Running with headphones to keep the blood oxygenated while listening to the latest rambles from higher ups...

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