Sounds like maybe a group of people just can't change the way they operate without massive communication overhead, which is also unwanted, possibly even more so

Sounds like maybe a group of people just can't change the way they operate without massive communication overhead, which is also unwanted, possibly even more so than the ill effects being complained about. Or it may be unrealistic to sustain or create. EDIT: Taking a second look at this... Whenever I read things like this, I'm going through and hearing some assumptions stated up front that always seem off to me. "The history is written by the victors, and the victors are those who are the most ruthless." The missing ingredient, as far as I can tell, is that reading history is an act of cooperation, not of competition, and that you can optimize for cooperation in a competitive context. You just need to find an appropriate context in which to compete to force people to cooperate to that end. Which is also why I'm generally irate when people go on and on about the values of competition while only giving a a sentence or two about the values of cooperation, or how the values of these two behaviors can be intertwined in complex and productive ways.