I think that one challenge is that the proper incentive structure changes as the company grows and matures. Google's biggest problem c. 2004 was that the suite

I think that one challenge is that the proper incentive structure changes as the company grows and matures. Google's biggest problem c. 2004 was that the suite of opportunities available to it on the Internet was far more than it had skilled employees to capitalize on. So they enshrined "leadership" and "influence" into their performance review system. You got promoted first for showing that you had the independence to tackle complex problems on your own; then that you could lead a team of people to tackle an even more complex problem; then that you could train others on how to lead teams of people; then that you identify the next set of complex new problems worth tackling; and so on. Worked great as long as the Internet was a big growth opportunity with lots of virgin undiscovered territory. But then when all the basic problems users care about are solved, how do you get promoted? Well, first you have to cancel a product that's working well. Now you have a big glaring complex problem that needs to be solved, so all your people can get promoted, move off the project, and then it can be canceled for the next cohort of promotions. And so on, until the only skillsets that company leaders have are "canceling products" and "creating technical debt". Google basically built a pyramid scheme into their performance management system. The thing is, this incentive system works on the level of the whole economy itself. There were plenty of companies (and open-source projects!) that did not build a pyramid scheme into their incentives. LiveJournal. OpenID. Semantic Web. RSS. PubSubHubbub. Bittorrent. Freenode. Where are they now? Well, they didn't build a pyramid scheme into their incentives, so they got out-grown by companies like Google and Meta that did. And this pattern extends back at least to the Industrial Revolution. Why do we have unsustainable car-centric suburbs based on polluting fossil fuels? Well, that technology grew faster than alternatives and then used their newfound wealth and customer base to convince cities to dismantle their trolley lines.