Checklists
At the workplace (or at least in the software industry), we see endless checklists. Most of these checklists are useless, or even worse than useless: they just delay things without adding any value. Why then do we still have these checklists? Good old bureaucracy, I thought. Which reminded me of this tirade by Bill Bonner against bureaucracy: “But you don't really think bureaucrats could improve the quality of teaching, do you? Of course not. What do they know about teaching? Or agriculture? Or selling stocks? Or banking? Or anything else? What improvements have bureaucrats ever made? Name one! Who invented indoor plumbing? Who invented the repeating rifle or rolled the first cigarette? Who created Facebook? Bureaucrats do not create wealth. They transfer it. From the people who earned it to themselves and other zombies.” But if checklists are just bureaucracy, why then do survive in the corporate world? Surely the profit motive should eliminate these inefficiencies, right? Gues