Oh, rather agreed. My point is that the vast majority of humans are just fine with rent-seeking, and in fact are complicit in wanting those rents. And we generally prefer to hide this under the guise of providing value and being rewarded justly.
My question is a search for counterexamples. Do we know of any large-scale endeavors where this kind of protectionism of valueless activity and rent-seeking is absent (or at least minimal)?
I’m trying to distinguish between two possible realities: a) If a project requires cooperation of thousands of people who are NOT mostly in the top decile or so of capability and alignment, a hierarchical structure is necessary, and will always have prominent maze-like qualities. b) Mazes are a current equilibrium, and near-universal because of reinforcement and expectations, but there are better ways, and it may only take one or two successes to seed this better way in the collective behavior set. b—alternate framing) Mazes are fairly common, but not necessarily guaranteed, and it’s feasible to build an organization of significant size without much maziness if the core is careful about it.
Oh, rather agreed. My point is that the vast majority of humans are just fine with rent-seeking, and in fact are complicit in wanting those rents. And we generally prefer to hide this under the guise of providing value and being rewarded justly.
My question is a search for counterexamples. Do we know of any large-scale endeavors where this kind of protectionism of valueless activity and rent-seeking is absent (or at least minimal)?
I’m trying to distinguish between two possible realities:
a) If a project requires cooperation of thousands of people who are NOT mostly in the top decile or so of capability and alignment, a hierarchical structure is necessary, and will always have prominent maze-like qualities.
b) Mazes are a current equilibrium, and near-universal because of reinforcement and expectations, but there are better ways, and it may only take one or two successes to seed this better way in the collective behavior set.
b—alternate framing) Mazes are fairly common, but not necessarily guaranteed, and it’s feasible to build an organization of significant size without much maziness if the core is careful about it.