3 ms·

Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management

14 points by Cmccann7 16y ago

lvecsey 16y ago
Isn't it the case that legal issues are often a bottleneck to getting products to market? The traits listed for "taking the plunge" have been described elsewhere (I think by pg) as the "rat" phenomenon. Basically there are a new breed of super rats which will persist and bootstrap or gain traction, to the detriment of conventional or historic VC interaction. The advent of online trading (with the floor traders going bye bye) is another peg in the coffin, I think. It very well may be possible to day trade as a primary means, with only a secondary concern of bootstrapping or working on a startup. With priorities like that the startup just becomes a passionate "can it be accomplished?" pursuit, because by comparison the profit incentive just isn't there.
zb 16y ago
This feels like a rewriting of history, given that the idea of the 'first-class man' was at the very core of "scientific management" and the phrase was, according to Kanigel, "a staple of Taylor's rhetoric".
- eries 16y ago
  Taylor still believed in the importance of individual character and skills. Taylor used the term "first-class man" to refer to the kind of person you could train to do high-quality work in scientific management. But he was careful to say that someone else (ie a manager armed with scientific methods) should determine what the optimal amount of work such a man should do. Today, Taylor is mostly remembered for the tactics he emphasized: time and motion studies, the separation of planning from working, etc. But that overlooks his lasting contribution, which is that the systems that are used to do work could be studied and scientifically improved. His 1911 "Principles of Scientific Management" is actually a very short read, is in the public domain, and is quite fun. You can get it for free for your Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Scientific-Management-ebook/dp/B000JQUO5G/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2 http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Scientific-Management-ebook...

14 points by Cmccann7 16y ago

Isn't it the case that legal issues are often a bottleneck to getting products to market? The traits listed for "taking the plunge" have been described elsewhere (I think by pg) as the "rat" phenomenon. Basically there are a new breed of super rats which will persist and bootstrap or gain traction, to the detriment of conventional or historic VC interaction. The advent of online trading (with the floor traders going bye bye) is another peg in the coffin, I think. It very well may be possible to day trade as a primary means, with only a secondary concern of bootstrapping or working on a startup. With priorities like that the startup just becomes a passionate "can it be accomplished?" pursuit, because by comparison the profit incentive just isn't there.

zb 16y ago

This feels like a rewriting of history, given that the idea of the 'first-class man' was at the very core of "scientific management" and the phrase was, according to Kanigel, "a staple of Taylor's rhetoric".

eries 16y ago
Taylor still believed in the importance of individual character and skills. Taylor used the term "first-class man" to refer to the kind of person you could train to do high-quality work in scientific management. But he was careful to say that someone else (ie a manager armed with scientific methods) should determine what the optimal amount of work such a man should do. Today, Taylor is mostly remembered for the tactics he emphasized: time and motion studies, the separation of planning from working, etc. But that overlooks his lasting contribution, which is that the systems that are used to do work could be studied and scientifically improved. His 1911 "Principles of Scientific Management" is actually a very short read, is in the public domain, and is quite fun. You can get it for free for your Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Scientific-Management-ebook/dp/B000JQUO5G/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2 http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Scientific-Management-ebook...