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"Ritual", as well as "ceremony" as it's prescribed by some team methodologies, are both attempts to submit the team individual into a supposed greater order, wh

"Ritual", as well as "ceremony" as it's prescribed by some team methodologies, are both attempts to submit the team individual into a supposed greater order, where there's none. You may speak of ritual or ceremony when something has been instituted for generations or at least several years, for significant effects towards the group itself (not towards its output). When the form and content of your practices change every 6 months, and vary widly because the things you work on, or because the hierarchy mandates you to, or because the group/team itself changes, that's nothing that's been instituted. A business company may very well have its own set of practices. But trying to tweak vocabulary towards making them sound like they are of the same level of importance and impact as rituals or ceremonies, with what those words mean in the social and religious senses, is really an attempt at manipulation.

nonrandomstring 5y ago
> trying to tweak vocabulary towards making them sound like they are of the same level of importance and impact as rituals or ceremonies, with what those words mean in the social and religious senses, is really an attempt at manipulation. I absolutely agree with you, and it's all around us, and becoming normative. We work in an industry, only 40 years old at most, that believes, with near religious fervour, that it's purpose is to radically redefine the very nature of life, work and society [1]. (I was given this super interesting link to the Barbrook Cameron essay by another HN poster [2].) > When the form and content of your practices change every 6 months, and vary wildly because the things you work on, or because the hierarchy mandates you to "Move fast and break things" isn't only about technology. It's also about breaking extant norms and transvaluation. One of the sinister sides of digital technology, in my opinion, is precisely this lie of omission with respect to "disruption". It's not just about "progressively replacing old and inefficient", a disruptor weapon can be turned on anything to gain the ends you want. That makes an even bigger nonsense of the already ridiculous notion of technological determinism, because at the very least you now have to ask "determined by who". Which gang of breathless neophytes will be telling me how to live my life today? [1] http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideol... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=30931517 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=30931517

nonrandomstring 5y ago

> trying to tweak vocabulary towards making them sound like they are of the same level of importance and impact as rituals or ceremonies, with what those words mean in the social and religious senses, is really an attempt at manipulation. I absolutely agree with you, and it's all around us, and becoming normative. We work in an industry, only 40 years old at most, that believes, with near religious fervour, that it's purpose is to radically redefine the very nature of life, work and society [1]. (I was given this super interesting link to the Barbrook Cameron essay by another HN poster [2].) > When the form and content of your practices change every 6 months, and vary wildly because the things you work on, or because the hierarchy mandates you to "Move fast and break things" isn't only about technology. It's also about breaking extant norms and transvaluation. One of the sinister sides of digital technology, in my opinion, is precisely this lie of omission with respect to "disruption". It's not just about "progressively replacing old and inefficient", a disruptor weapon can be turned on anything to gain the ends you want. That makes an even bigger nonsense of the already ridiculous notion of technological determinism, because at the very least you now have to ask "determined by who". Which gang of breathless neophytes will be telling me how to live my life today? [1] http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideol... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=30931517 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=30931517