We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day – competence gap edition “When competence is rewarded, you get more of it. When the ability to play internal politics is what gets you ahead, then you get more of that. SpaceX has clear goals, short deadlines and clear lines of responsibility. Boeing’s culture, once one that revered engineering, has become one that worships byzantine corporate politics — where you’re more likely to get fired over DEI infractions than over job performance. And it’s not just Boeing; in Oregon, a top forestry official was put on leave after a DEI officer complained he was “seeking only the candidates most qualified for the job,” without emphasizing their “gender and identity.” Ditto the federal government, which has created a self-perpetuating culture of incompetence: It’s virtually impossible to get fired, and failures often bring more resources to the agency, not less.”
– Glenn Reynolds, New York Post.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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You reap as you sow. It would seem that the lowest common denominator, in all things, is what is being “sown” to. That precludes competence, merit and initiative, all of which are
not inclusive. Let it be said that results are far less important than the feeling that you make the difference, you know, your participation trophy? Virtue signaling is
such an underrated talent.
Competence is downstream of accountability. When people know that failing to deliver means losing their jobs, their business, or their seats, then they will work hard to avoid that. Managers and political leaders who know that they are accountable for results will hire people who can deliver them and fire those who can’t. The competence gap is the result of an accountability gap. But the accountability gap is a bit like the cost of lifting mass to orbit, because the larger it is the more difficult it is to do anything, and solving that one problem suddenly unlocks a vast range of possibilities.
@AndrewZ
Competence is downstream of accountability.
What you say is true, but there is another way to look at it. People respond to incentives, so outcomes are dependent on what incentives you offer. There are many ways to be “competent”, for sure, one is engineering excellence, however another type of “competence” is that ability to advance through the political jungle. Another type of “competence” is the ability to fine tune your work to do the minimum possible before you get fired (this is common in the public school system for both staff and students). So if you look at outcomes you get a very accurate picture of what the incentives are.
When entities get large and fat and have guaranteed contracts as is the case with state employees or porky government contractors, their incentives to succeed are gone because they will succeed in keeping their job or big fat contract almost regardless of what they do. So they find other types of incentivization. And that is what you see when people get their panties in a bunch over ephemera and stupidity. They do it because they don’t have anything better to do.
As a libertarian I want to celebrate the creative destruction the market is visiting on Boeing, but I don’t. Because the world is very dependent on the existence of Boeing. We can’t be left to a monopoly of Airbus, or the inability to manufacture some of the amazingly important military aircraft they build. But how very sad to see such a great company reduced to this.