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> You do a good job. You’re promoted to manager. You need to learn a whole other job Relevant: https://nebula.tv/videos/coldfusion-why-are-managers-so-bad-at-t

> You do a good job. You’re promoted to manager. You need to learn a whole other job Relevant: https://nebula.tv/videos/coldfusion-why-are-managers-so-bad-at-their-jobs https://nebula.tv/videos/coldfusion-why-are-managers-so-bad-... (or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-UdDg5uIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-UdDg5uIw if Nebula won't show it to you) The tl;dw is that quite obviously the years and years spent learning one skillset absolutely does not translate into the ability to "debug humans"

ninju 2y ago
a.k.a. the Peter Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
- mdaniel 2y ago
  That was one of the main topics of the video, yes, but the rest of it looked at some research into how to address it. One study showed that just promoting people at random had better outcomes, and a separate study showed that "up or out" was also effective. I would guess that the choice between them is mostly about the culture of the organization
  - hx8 2y ago
    I'd like to read that random promotion paper. I wonder how high up they actually implemented this strategy, because the idea of the CEO just being the person that chosen at random more than anyone else is hilarious to me.
    - mdaniel 2y ago
      My mental model is that "promotion" is something that only happens to middle managers; board relevant seats are either appointed by the board or come from the good ole' boy network (which I do recognize is almost certainly worse than promoting a bad manager from within, who at least has existing relationships and business context) As best I can tell, it's this one https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378437111003943#:~:text=providing%20further%20support%20to%20our%20claim%20that%20a%20random%20strategy%20seems%20to%20be%20a%20very%20simple%20and%20interesting%20way%20to%20increase%20the%20efficiency%20of%20any%20real%20organization https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03784...

ninju 2y ago

a.k.a. the Peter Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

mdaniel 2y ago
That was one of the main topics of the video, yes, but the rest of it looked at some research into how to address it. One study showed that just promoting people at random had better outcomes, and a separate study showed that "up or out" was also effective. I would guess that the choice between them is mostly about the culture of the organization
- hx8 2y ago
  I'd like to read that random promotion paper. I wonder how high up they actually implemented this strategy, because the idea of the CEO just being the person that chosen at random more than anyone else is hilarious to me.
  - mdaniel 2y ago
    My mental model is that "promotion" is something that only happens to middle managers; board relevant seats are either appointed by the board or come from the good ole' boy network (which I do recognize is almost certainly worse than promoting a bad manager from within, who at least has existing relationships and business context) As best I can tell, it's this one https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378437111003943#:~:text=providing%20further%20support%20to%20our%20claim%20that%20a%20random%20strategy%20seems%20to%20be%20a%20very%20simple%20and%20interesting%20way%20to%20increase%20the%20efficiency%20of%20any%20real%20organization https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03784...