>I remember having a fun debate over beers on why more companies / startups couldn't operate in that manner. Typically cooperative ownership structures have tr

>I remember having a fun debate over beers on why more companies / startups couldn't operate in that manner. Typically cooperative ownership structures have trouble making big changes all at once — pivoting. When power is distributed hierarchically, it’s easier for a new idea to flow from bottom to top, top to everywhere. The tradeoff is that hierarchies can only do this if most people are mostly honest, while democratic structures do a better job of smoothing out competing incentives. (I learned this, originally, from a contrast between Lenin’s NEP syndicalism and Stalin’s command economy. Centralization in the latter permitted big movements towards education and energy generation.)