Your “star systems” point reminds me another problem which seems totally absent in this whole discussion—namely, things like agency conflicts and single-points-of-failure. For instance, I was reading about Alcibiades, and I’m pretty sure he was (one of) the most astonishing men alive in his age and overshadowed his peers- brilliant, creative, ridiculously gorgeous, persuasive, etc. Sorry for the cautionary tale: but he caused Athens to go to an unnecessary war, then defected to Sparta, & defected to Persia, prompted an oligarchic revolution in his homeland in order to return… and people enjoyed the idea because they knew he was awesome & possibly the only hope of a way out… then he let the oligarchy be replaced by a new democratic regime of his liking, became a superstar general who changed the course of the war, but then let his subordinate protégé lose a key battle because of overconfidence… and finally just exiled in his castle while the city lost the war. I think one of the major advancements of our culture is that our institutions got less and less personal. So, while we are looking for star scientists, rulers, managers, etc. (i.e., a beneficious type of aristocracy) to leverage our output, we should also solve the resilience problems caused by agency conflicts and concentrating power and resources in few “points-of-failure”. (I mean, I know difference in perfomance is a complex factual question per se, without us having to worry about governance; I’m just pointing out that, for many relevant activities where differences in performance will be highlighted the most, we’re likely to meet these related issues, and they should be taken into account if your organisation is acting based on “differences in performance are huge”)
I’m sorry but I just saw this comment now. My use of the forum can be infrequent.
I think your point is fascinating and your shift in perspective and using history is powerful.
I take your point about this figure and how disruptive (in the normal, typical sense of the word and not SV sense) he was.
I don’t have much deep thoughts. I guess that it is true that institutions are more important now, at least for the reason since there’s 8B people so single people should have less agency.
I am usually suspicious about stories like this since it’s unclear how institutions and cultures are involved. But I don’t understand the context well (classical period Greece). I guess they had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism#Purpose for a reason.
Your “star systems” point reminds me another problem which seems totally absent in this whole discussion—namely, things like agency conflicts and single-points-of-failure. For instance, I was reading about Alcibiades, and I’m pretty sure he was (one of) the most astonishing men alive in his age and overshadowed his peers- brilliant, creative, ridiculously gorgeous, persuasive, etc. Sorry for the cautionary tale: but he caused Athens to go to an unnecessary war, then defected to Sparta, & defected to Persia, prompted an oligarchic revolution in his homeland in order to return… and people enjoyed the idea because they knew he was awesome & possibly the only hope of a way out… then he let the oligarchy be replaced by a new democratic regime of his liking, became a superstar general who changed the course of the war, but then let his subordinate protégé lose a key battle because of overconfidence… and finally just exiled in his castle while the city lost the war.
I think one of the major advancements of our culture is that our institutions got less and less personal. So, while we are looking for star scientists, rulers, managers, etc. (i.e., a beneficious type of aristocracy) to leverage our output, we should also solve the resilience problems caused by agency conflicts and concentrating power and resources in few “points-of-failure”.
(I mean, I know difference in perfomance is a complex factual question per se, without us having to worry about governance; I’m just pointing out that, for many relevant activities where differences in performance will be highlighted the most, we’re likely to meet these related issues, and they should be taken into account if your organisation is acting based on “differences in performance are huge”)
Hey Ramiro,
I’m sorry but I just saw this comment now. My use of the forum can be infrequent.
I think your point is fascinating and your shift in perspective and using history is powerful.
I take your point about this figure and how disruptive (in the normal, typical sense of the word and not SV sense) he was.
I don’t have much deep thoughts. I guess that it is true that institutions are more important now, at least for the reason since there’s 8B people so single people should have less agency.
I am usually suspicious about stories like this since it’s unclear how institutions and cultures are involved. But I don’t understand the context well (classical period Greece). I guess they had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism#Purpose for a reason.