This is exactly the sort of problem that often occurs in businesses and organizations, large and small. Startups should take note! This is what you get when yo

This is exactly the sort of problem that often occurs in businesses and organizations, large and small. Startups should take note! This is what you get when you have ambiguous specifications or requirements, and delegate the implementation to a committee. The authors make this point clear: Obama hoped that his response to the “underwear bomber” would be a turning point. In 2010, he gave increased powers and responsibilities to the agencies that nominate individuals to the lists, placing pressure on them to add names. Individuals had perverse incentives to meet the highest possible expectations, incredible pressure to err on the side of the safety of the organization, and the comfort of never having to answer to the public because everything is secret. Am I talking about GitHub's human resources failure in dealing with harassment, or the federal government delegating producing names for a watchlist out to 19 separate organizations? The answer: both. Every organization can fall prey to people internalizing the value of the organization's insiders over everyone else. "Us vs them" attitudes pervade society and our social fabric, and bureaucracy and poor management exacerbate the issue. For the government, that means there are a hundred thousand terrorists living among us; and for your startup, it means you might be inculcating a dangerous culture that can come back to bite you. At least the government doesn't have to worry about its revenue stream drying up from bad publicity.