For hard problems that take a lot of working memory and a big knowledge base I think teams are hard to scale. Rather than making long-term commitments to a
few people that can tackle the hard problems over time, organizations tend to favor easier to decompose problems than can fan out to more interchangeable staff. But this isn’t a problem solving tactic, it’s a problem selection tactic. In politico-speak,
it is a pivot. Normalizing the occult mental representations of experts is a slow process.
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]]
On Behalf Of glen ep ropella
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 6:50 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Memo To Jeff Bezos: The Most Productive Workers Are Team Players, Not Selfish Individualists | The Evolution Institute
OK. I agree pretty much with what you say below. But that's more of a statement about the application of resources, not the efficacy of teams. Humans, being complex machines with diverse phenotypes are best
applied to multifarious problems. As automation takes over tasks, the displaced humans should be reapplied. That's not happening as fast as we'd like. But it doesn't imply that teams are less effective than individuals or that teams are mostly a tool to undermine
individuals.
On October 27, 2016 5:32:18 PM PDT, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:
"I don't understand what you're saying, here. Are you saying that professionals don't, say, bake cookies for the PTA or their kid's baseball team? Obviously you're not saying that."
I am talking about the major compromises people make to make it up the corporate ladder or beat out their competitors. Ok, they may bake cookies, but the kids aren't coming to work, they're going to day care. Meanwhile, in case you hadn't noticed the middle class is disappearing. People are falling down or they are moving up. When I say "Professionals do XXX", I mean "It is in the best interest of professionals who want to remain professionals to do XXX", especially when the work could soon be automated. Of course, they may do all sorts of things in practice. The world you are talking about is not going to be sustainable for long.
Marcus
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