7 Comments

Good stuff, Mike. I'm a big fan of Brooks' Law, and the explanation underpinning it can apply to both organizational change and systems complexity. Re-wording somewhat, the explanation amounts to: capacity of an organization increases incrementally with each new person added, while complexity of communication (and thus collaboration) increases arithmetically. Since productivity is a function not just of capacity but of efficiency (which is inversely proportional to complexity), you can't make an increasingly large organization more productive without changing the very structure of the organization itself, something organizations are inherently resistant to doing. What applies to collections of people largely applies to collections of systems as well (networks, computers, software components, etc.).

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Good to be the king ")

King's Law comprises 40 articles and is divided into seven main chapters. Articles 1 to 7 determine the royal absolute power, and the following articles contain rules on the king's authority and guardianship, on the king's accession and anointing, on the indivisibility of the kingdoms, on princes and princesses, on the king's duty to maintain absolute monarchy, and on the succession.

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🤣 I love it!

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So true about marketing and comp specialists! And we lawyers are well known for our endless markups….

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I'm guilty as well :)

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Loved this one, Mike. And now I'm jealous you have a law named after you.

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I believe the Dunning-Kruger effect is a significant factor behind many startup failures. It seems that the vast majority of founders overestimate their knowledge on various subjects and underestimate the reality that most founders fail miserably in their efforts to create successful products. This failure often occurs because they are unaware of numerous critical aspects they initially overlooked.

Another principle that shapes my understanding is that people are often prisoners of their own success. This is particularly relevant to founders who, driven by a bias for action and a lack of effective mechanisms to "understand reality," often apply the same strategies they used in previous successes without considering the unique contextual characteristics of their new ventures. This can lead to significant failures in their endeavors.

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