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> These are all written by people whose minds have been thoroughly corporatized, true believers in the hierarchy with an inner need to justify it. This seems t

> These are all written by people whose minds have been thoroughly corporatized, true believers in the hierarchy with an inner need to justify it. This seems to miss the fact that what’s needed in a startup tends to be very different than what’s needed in a larger, more mature organization. Hierarchies in larger organizations exist to organize things, and I’ve never encountered an organization other than an early stage startup that has somehow managed to avoid this. Even in flat organizations (which are invariably fairly small), there are plenty of articles out there about how these tend to involve hidden hierarchies and agendas. A few example links: https://www.getflow.com/blog/flat-will-kill-you https://www.getflow.com/blog/flat-will-kill-you https://getlighthouse.com/blog/flat-organizational-structure-fails/ https://getlighthouse.com/blog/flat-organizational-structure... https://workforce.com/news/hidden-hierarchies https://workforce.com/news/hidden-hierarchies

lapcat 3y ago
> This seems to miss the fact that what’s needed in a startup tends to be very different than what’s needed in a larger, more mature organization. I wasn't talking about how companies should be organized. I was talking about how one should think about hierarchies: > No matter how much you want to believe [emphasis added] that hierarchy is a "meritocracy", the founding of the hierarchy was undoubtedly chaos. > I've always felt that hierarchical, subservient thinking [emphasis added] is strange, and I honestly never considered my former bosses to be "better" than me. As a practical matter, hierarchies are difficult to avoid, as you've said. But they're only a means to an end. The point is to avoid internalizing hierarchical values and making your personal sense of worth depend on your place in them.

lapcat 3y ago

> This seems to miss the fact that what’s needed in a startup tends to be very different than what’s needed in a larger, more mature organization. I wasn't talking about how companies should be organized. I was talking about how one should think about hierarchies: > No matter how much you want to believe [emphasis added] that hierarchy is a "meritocracy", the founding of the hierarchy was undoubtedly chaos. > I've always felt that hierarchical, subservient thinking [emphasis added] is strange, and I honestly never considered my former bosses to be "better" than me. As a practical matter, hierarchies are difficult to avoid, as you've said. But they're only a means to an end. The point is to avoid internalizing hierarchical values and making your personal sense of worth depend on your place in them.