4 ms·
> I connect this with solipsism, because this failure to acknowledge is paired with severe incuriosity about the rest of the world. I don't know if solipsism i
by Ozzie_osman 6y ago
> I connect this with solipsism, because this failure to acknowledge is paired with severe incuriosity about the rest of the world.
I don't know if solipsism is the right word, but the second part of that sentence ("severe incuriosity about the rest of the world") is definitely a huge part of dysfunctional / mediocre organizations. I've interfaced with a lot (think low-level government bureaucracy in developing countries), and you often hear things like:
* "X is impossible" -> "How come this other person or organization has been able to do it?" -> "Nope, impossible!" -> "But what if we tried Y?" -> "Nope, impossible!"
This so-called "impossibility" is often because someone tried something and failed years ago, and so a huge part of possibility is now impossible via an immutable, sweeping generalization. No curiosity to revisit that assumption, no willingness to question if it's wrong. No willingness to consider whether times have changed, or whether someone else has figured out something we haven't. No willingness to experiment.
It was incredibly frustrating.
- TrispusAttucks 6y agoIs it also possible that they know those underneath and horizontal who will need to do the work will make it impossible?
- Ozzie_osman 6y agoPossibly, but that ends up looking a little different. Its more like learned helplessness. "X is possible, but we could never do it." That's different than "X is literally impossible".
- salixrosa 6y agoWhat I've found recently is that the thing is impossible within the scope of the bureaucracy we're working in. For example, it's impossible to get this 3rd party hardware working in another 3rd party's network because none of the people who understand the product are being given access to the system in the ways needed to figure out what's going wrong. It's impossible to build a particular feature because that part of the tech stack is officially another team's territory, or because the process to approve the new feature hasn't itself been approved yet. Ugh.
- tootie 6y agoIt's not necessarily incuriousity or even really fear of change. It's job security. You have a giant organization that's built for an industry at a point in time and adopting to change likely requires rewiring your entire hierarchy and turning over a lot of staff. That's a hard pill to swallow. Made much harder if your workforce is heavily unionized.