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  • Jeff Miller (orange hatband)jmeowmeow@hachyderm.io
    Jul 24, 2026, 5:11 PM

    @mononcqc Your summary phrase of "the final individual" continuously making system adjustments reminds me of the somewhat typical submarine commander described by L. David Marquet in "Turn the Ship Around", an expert in every system, prepared to micromanage and take the consequences of that choice of control modes.

    Marquet preferred more bottom-up competency building, with fewer routine escalations of decisions, and was pushed further in this direction by being assigned to command a sub he hadn't studied in depth.

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  • Fred Hebertmononcqc@hachyderm.io
    Jul 24, 2026, 6:15 PM

    @jmeowmeow yes, and there various ways of framing this (adjustments, adaptations, translation, corrections), at various degrees (alignment vs course-correction). The means available ideally match the task at hand and the experience at the far end is feedback that goes back up the system. When it doesn’t happen, you have a deferred accountability with no real way toward success—although individual blame can then act as deflector against systemic change.

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  • Jeff Miller (orange hatband)jmeowmeow@hachyderm.io
    Jul 24, 2026, 6:37 PM

    @mononcqc I need to go back and read Dan Davies' "The Unaccountability Machine" on the self-protective mechanisms preserving the structure of human systems.

    I remember being less impressed than I was hoping, but maybe it would go better at a slower reading pace, scribbling notes in the margin and/or a notes app.

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