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The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies. -- Robert Conquest's Th

The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies. -- Robert Conquest's Third Law of Politics I'm grateful that it's not compulsory for me to financially support this particular bureaucracy.

breck 2y ago
Wow, thanks for that quote. When I worked at Azure, one of the things I was responsible for was the "deep link" code to get to the management page for a resource. So I became intimately familiar with Azure "resource ids". I could not for the life of me figure out why they were designed the way they were designed. They should have just been a random or custom alphanumeric hash/permalink. I asked my questions and raised my concerns internally but failed to get things fixed (politics is not my strong suit). My most probable explanation for them was that they were designed by a mole Jeff Bezos had gotten into the Azure org to work on behalf of AWS.
- gradus_ad 2y ago
  Incompetence does a fine job of explaining this, no?
  - SigmundA 2y ago
    Yes Hanlon's Razor is sort of the opposite side of the coin here, almost like Clarks Third law except: "Any sufficiently bureaucratic system is indistinguishable from a cabal of enemies"
  - throwup238 2y ago
    Microsoft’s signature Incompetence™ Enterprise Edition no less. Overcomplicating things the enterprise way is exactly what I expect from them.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
  > My most probable explanation for them was that they were designed by a mole Jeff Bezos had gotten into the Azure org to work on behalf of AWS. I've read this five times now, and each time I read it I flip on whether it's a joke or some kind of (semi-)anonymous tip being leaked to a journalist through a pre-arranged drop site.
- katbyte 2y ago
  fwiw i am a fan of azure resource IDs as they make it easy to identify what and where a resource is vs a random magic string you have to go look up
  - breck 2y ago
    I think this could be accommodated with changeable permalinks. I understand your perspective. Thanks for sharing.
immibis 2y ago
Have you bought a computer recently, or, like, ever? Every OEM pays a Windows tax, even on computers that don't come with Windows.
- TacticalCoder 2y ago
  > Have you bought a computer recently, or, like, ever? A non-Mac computer you mean? I bought a desktop in parts, which I assembled myself and installed Linux on it. I don't doubt there may be some hidden Microsoft tax somewhere in the stack but I certainly didn't pay any Windows license nor any other Microsoft software.
  - NemoNobody 2y ago
    Microsoft owns substantial share of Apple - in the 90s Gates saved Jobs so that Msft would have a "competitor"
- ben_w 2y ago
  I remember people saying that in the 90s, I rather assumed it stopped with them getting sued for monopolistic practices.
divan 2y ago
How to understand this quote? I've recently started seeing bureaucratic organisations as a simple one-/few-cellular organisms. I.e. one person is smart and intelligent with 90 billion neurones contributing to its behaviour, but bureaucratic organisation with 1000 people is like an organism with 1000 neurons (or less).
- JohnFen 2y ago
  I think that quote is just a restatement of "We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us."
  - eesmith 2y ago
    That's a Pogo commentary on pollution, “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”. https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-met-the-enemy/ https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-me... For another pop culture reference, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals", Men In Black.
- constantcrying 2y ago
  >How to understand this quote? Exactly like it is written. Have you ever been in a 100k+ employee corporation, which has thousands of suppliers? I have and I do believe it is a pretty good description. Again and again the simplest tasks turn into monumental disasters, again and again you see incomprehensible "reorganizations", which break up functional structures and turn them into dysfunctional ones, again and again top management forces insane decisions, which everyone at the bottom knows do not work. >I've recently started seeing bureaucratic organisations as a simple one-/few-cellular organisms. I.e. one person is smart and intelligent with 90 billion neurones contributing to its behaviour, but bureaucratic organisation with 1000 people is like an organism with 1000 neurons (or less). That is not a good description at all. Bureaucracy happens because every single node is infinitely complex and responds to wildly different inputs.
  - lalalandland 2y ago
    Bureaucracy on a certain level can almost be described as an artificial living organism. It starts to behave in certain ways that nobody can control.
yyggvbb 2y ago
This is laughably paranoid. I bet you’re great with the ladies.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
laxd 2y ago
Would this be an example of the Yoneda lemma?

breck 2y ago

Wow, thanks for that quote. When I worked at Azure, one of the things I was responsible for was the "deep link" code to get to the management page for a resource. So I became intimately familiar with Azure "resource ids". I could not for the life of me figure out why they were designed the way they were designed. They should have just been a random or custom alphanumeric hash/permalink. I asked my questions and raised my concerns internally but failed to get things fixed (politics is not my strong suit). My most probable explanation for them was that they were designed by a mole Jeff Bezos had gotten into the Azure org to work on behalf of AWS.

gradus_ad 2y ago
Incompetence does a fine job of explaining this, no?
- SigmundA 2y ago
  Yes Hanlon's Razor is sort of the opposite side of the coin here, almost like Clarks Third law except: "Any sufficiently bureaucratic system is indistinguishable from a cabal of enemies"
- throwup238 2y ago
  Microsoft’s signature Incompetence™ Enterprise Edition no less. Overcomplicating things the enterprise way is exactly what I expect from them.
NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
> My most probable explanation for them was that they were designed by a mole Jeff Bezos had gotten into the Azure org to work on behalf of AWS. I've read this five times now, and each time I read it I flip on whether it's a joke or some kind of (semi-)anonymous tip being leaked to a journalist through a pre-arranged drop site.
katbyte 2y ago
fwiw i am a fan of azure resource IDs as they make it easy to identify what and where a resource is vs a random magic string you have to go look up
- breck 2y ago
  I think this could be accommodated with changeable permalinks. I understand your perspective. Thanks for sharing.

immibis 2y ago

Have you bought a computer recently, or, like, ever? Every OEM pays a Windows tax, even on computers that don't come with Windows.

TacticalCoder 2y ago
> Have you bought a computer recently, or, like, ever? A non-Mac computer you mean? I bought a desktop in parts, which I assembled myself and installed Linux on it. I don't doubt there may be some hidden Microsoft tax somewhere in the stack but I certainly didn't pay any Windows license nor any other Microsoft software.
- NemoNobody 2y ago
  Microsoft owns substantial share of Apple - in the 90s Gates saved Jobs so that Msft would have a "competitor"
ben_w 2y ago
I remember people saying that in the 90s, I rather assumed it stopped with them getting sued for monopolistic practices.

divan 2y ago

How to understand this quote? I've recently started seeing bureaucratic organisations as a simple one-/few-cellular organisms. I.e. one person is smart and intelligent with 90 billion neurones contributing to its behaviour, but bureaucratic organisation with 1000 people is like an organism with 1000 neurons (or less).

JohnFen 2y ago
I think that quote is just a restatement of "We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us."
- eesmith 2y ago
  That's a Pogo commentary on pollution, “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”. https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-met-the-enemy/ https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-me... For another pop culture reference, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals", Men In Black.
constantcrying 2y ago
>How to understand this quote? Exactly like it is written. Have you ever been in a 100k+ employee corporation, which has thousands of suppliers? I have and I do believe it is a pretty good description. Again and again the simplest tasks turn into monumental disasters, again and again you see incomprehensible "reorganizations", which break up functional structures and turn them into dysfunctional ones, again and again top management forces insane decisions, which everyone at the bottom knows do not work. >I've recently started seeing bureaucratic organisations as a simple one-/few-cellular organisms. I.e. one person is smart and intelligent with 90 billion neurones contributing to its behaviour, but bureaucratic organisation with 1000 people is like an organism with 1000 neurons (or less). That is not a good description at all. Bureaucracy happens because every single node is infinitely complex and responds to wildly different inputs.
- lalalandland 2y ago
  Bureaucracy on a certain level can almost be described as an artificial living organism. It starts to behave in certain ways that nobody can control.

yyggvbb 2y ago

This is laughably paranoid. I bet you’re great with the ladies.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

laxd 2y ago

Would this be an example of the Yoneda lemma?