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In order to be a devil's advocate: a classic cargo cult is when you make an fake airplane from mud and sticks. You cannot make a fake bean bag, or a fake dress

In order to be a devil's advocate: a classic cargo cult is when you make an fake airplane from mud and sticks. You cannot make a fake bean bag, or a fake dress code, can you?

colanderman 8y ago
Presumably the analogy is that the dress code and bean bag are the mud and sticks with which the banks are trying to mimic SV tech culture. After all, the mud and the sticks were not fake, were they?
- AlexTWithBeard 8y ago
  Good point. Very good point. But wouldn't "fake it till you make it" have a chance here?
  - lordnacho 8y ago
    If you "make it", it's not fake. Sure they could pay people what tech firms pay and treat them the same way, but then it wouldn't be fake. What's fake is trying to get real results without real change.
    - theoh 8y ago
      When cargo cult thinking applies to organizational structure, it's called mimetic isomorphism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic_isomorphism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic_isomorphism. There's nothing inherently fake about that, but contextual factors might make it inappropriate, whether or not the raison d'etre of a particular org structure is understood by the participants. Art institutions in peripheral cities are often victims of mimetic isomorphism. They try to emulate what institutions in major art centres are doing, but without the supporting thick soup of intellectual and artistic talent.
lordnacho 8y ago
No, you're missing the point: If you don't understand what is causal - the original case being that a radio operator uses a radio to talk to someone to get cargo delivered - then there's no amount of mimicry that works. You can make everyone wear US army uniforms, even real ones, and it doesn't cause cargo to arrive. So long as you are not addressing the actual issue, it won't be addressed. If banks want to hire tech employees they have to pay them, and they have to respect them. Adding a bunch of toys is neither of these things.

In order to be a devil's advocate: a classic cargo cult is when you make an fake airplane from mud and sticks. You cannot make a fake bean bag, or a fake dress code, can you?

colanderman 8y ago

Presumably the analogy is that the dress code and bean bag are the mud and sticks with which the banks are trying to mimic SV tech culture. After all, the mud and the sticks were not fake, were they?

AlexTWithBeard 8y ago
Good point. Very good point. But wouldn't "fake it till you make it" have a chance here?
- lordnacho 8y ago
  If you "make it", it's not fake. Sure they could pay people what tech firms pay and treat them the same way, but then it wouldn't be fake. What's fake is trying to get real results without real change.
  - theoh 8y ago
    When cargo cult thinking applies to organizational structure, it's called mimetic isomorphism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic_isomorphism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic_isomorphism. There's nothing inherently fake about that, but contextual factors might make it inappropriate, whether or not the raison d'etre of a particular org structure is understood by the participants. Art institutions in peripheral cities are often victims of mimetic isomorphism. They try to emulate what institutions in major art centres are doing, but without the supporting thick soup of intellectual and artistic talent.

lordnacho 8y ago

No, you're missing the point: If you don't understand what is causal - the original case being that a radio operator uses a radio to talk to someone to get cargo delivered - then there's no amount of mimicry that works. You can make everyone wear US army uniforms, even real ones, and it doesn't cause cargo to arrive. So long as you are not addressing the actual issue, it won't be addressed. If banks want to hire tech employees they have to pay them, and they have to respect them. Adding a bunch of toys is neither of these things.