Hacker News Reader

I think WFH is key to making good products, for focus and an external view. If Yahoo is still making peanut butter, getting internalized viewpoints isn't going to help improve external product development and perception. Groupthink is heavy in the office which is bad for external views of product. Also this concentrates employees to one locale, again lending to internalized viewpoints of how things are.

View on HN

You're right that entropy moves that way, but you can solve this culture problem in the office with the right maintenance. Implementing a strategy that lets people feel comfortable throwing disruptive ideas up the ladder helps a lot. I tend to find the groupthink comes from certain personalities imposing their will on offices. At times its necessary but you also risk putting your staff in lockstep.

Agree - "design by committee" is a disaster and you many times get something mediocre, full of compromises. On the other hand, interaction, corridor-talks and chance encounters are key to idea-exchange which is also important.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com