This is definitely a well-written essay. I also have a favorite passage: "There probably aren’t many jobs that can be reduced to rule-following and still be d

This is definitely a well-written essay. I also have a favorite passage: "There probably aren’t many jobs that can be reduced to rule-following and still be done well. But in many jobs there is an attempt to do just this, and the perversity of it may go unnoticed by those who design the work process. ... you put the manual away and consider the facts before you. You do this because ultimately you are responsible to the motorcycle and its owner, not to some procedure." There lies the crux of the problem. Here is a man dedicated to good work. The people who design the work flow processes know that they do not always fit the actual world. The point is to get it right enough of the time to keep enough customers happy so that growth targets for the quarter or year are met. When you have tens of thousands or millions of customers, you can do very well by getting it right 80% of the time. The underlying capital serves as a cushion for the rest of the cases. The lone mechanic has to prioritize keeping his customers happy if he wants to stay in business for long. And that's exactly how the author likes it.