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It's quite possible for the engineers to work really hard in ways that even directly harm the company, either directly, or by increasing the political costs of
by hibikir 3y ago
It's quite possible for the engineers to work really hard in ways that even directly harm the company, either directly, or by increasing the political costs of making a better decision.
My favorite here is Bridgewater and their HR/Evaluation/Alignment system. There's books written about it. Developing it and running it took a high percentage of workers and contractors. Its implementation had all kinds of negative effects on everyone else, including the people doing the actual investment. But it took a pandemic, and the CEO being sidelined, for the whole thing to be basically thrown away.
- SeanAnderson 3y agoI'm aware of their alignment system from the book Principles, but I'm curious why/how you came to the conclusion it was a negative? Pandemic and larger-than-life CEO stepping down both seem like the major outliers in the dynamic you described. Bridgewater was very, very successful for quite some time with that policy in place.
- fasthands9 3y agoI had always assumed (perhaps cynically) that Bridgewater's elaborate system was part of its marketing to people who run endowments and pensions. It gives people a sense that they are working with the best and hardest working, even if in reality their returns are equal to other less notable firms.
- lancewiggs 3y agoRead "The Fund" - an entire book on the matter.