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I work at a small software company, and too often our CEO and company will latch onto nuggets from material like this and use it to justify a "swing for the fen
by preordained 11y ago
I work at a small software company, and too often our CEO and company will latch onto nuggets from material like this and use it to justify a "swing for the fences", "nothing ventured nothing gained" sort of mindset. All well and good, but they blithely overlook the "we fail all the time" parts, and sometimes we take risks where the potential losses are not easy to absorb, or we don't have the vast resources of a big company to attempt a thing without impacting our mainline investment. Unfortunately, I've seen first hand that interesting, inspiring ideas can turn cargo cult real quick without some reality to temper them; namely, there are only two scenarios where you can easily justify risk (that is, not sweat over it): 1. You have nothing to lose. 2. You have relatively little to lose.
- zeemonkee3 11y agoI suspect a lot of the current griping over hiring practices is due to this. Small companies cargo-cult hiring practices from Google/Amazon/Apple/Facebook, but they forget that these companies have huge numbers of good applicants who are willing to jump through hoops just for the opportunity to have $BIGNAME on their resume.
- timje1 11y agoA tangent, but when did 'cargo-cult' become a verb and not a noun?
- jjtheblunt 11y agoWtf is cargo cult?
- steveklabnik 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult#Metaphorical_uses_of_the_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult#Metaphorical_uses_o...
- hguant 11y agoFrom wikipedia: "The name derives from the belief that various ritualistic acts will lead to a bestowing of material wealth." Basically, slavishly copying someone else's actions without actually understanding the underlying principle behind those actions. The most famous example is from WWII - Japanese and American armed forces built airstrips on underdeveloped islands, and either abandoned or shared what seemed like massive amounts of wealth with the islanders. When the war was over, islanders replicated airstrips and military bases, some even dressing up as soldiers, in order to bring back the flow of cargo.
- cookiecaper 11y ago>Basically, slavishly copying someone else's actions without actually understanding the underlying principle behind those actions. And it should be noted that this works really well much of the time, which is why humans often do it. A deep understanding can be beneficial if you're capable of grasping it, but if we're honest, most people aren't.
- deanCommie 11y agoYeah but the idea of the expression is to apply it in situations where it clearly isn't working. If it works you don't call it a cargo cult anymore
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- kelvin0 11y agoThis is not the answer, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_Cult_%28musician%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_Cult_%28musician%29 Looks like someone already had the idea of using this as a band name!
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- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoA cool thing about the English language is you can do that sort of thing whenever you feel like it.
- tvladeck 11y agoNouns get verbed all the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)
- tim333 11y agoI believe in "ideas can turn cargo cult" it was adjectived rather than verbed.
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- calibraxis 11y agoOh god yes. At one company, I'd see an article trending on HN and think, "Oh fuck, some suck-up's gonna email to everyone, and the CTO will publicly pat him on the head for confirming his prejudices."
- ericzawo 11y agoI think about this sentiment all the time. Any C-level professional (even if you're in a company with a single digit of employees) should be constantly challenging their own line of thinking.
- OliverJones 11y agoAgreed. At least Bezos's letter is online where everybody can read it. At least we all know what the shiny little nugget looks like that people are chasing. That's better than chasing some shiny buzzword from a business professor writing in the Harvard Business Review. With a public-company shareholder letter, everybody can know the context.
- ryandrake 11y agoLike when the Steve Jobs book came out and every CEO in the valley all of a sudden thought they were a product design genius.
- kevando 11y agoDo you understand why your CEO swings for the fences? It sounds like the mindset isn't what bothers you, it's why she swings for the fences.
- avs733 11y agoI think the comment was meant more to indicate that the CEO doesn't know why they are swinging for the fences.