Unintended Consequences

Posted on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 @ 8:37 pm
Filed Under Bureaucrats, Computing
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In short, all the failings attributed to government happen in private enterprises too. These failings are a fixture of human nature and organizational dynamics.

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Sympathy for the Devil

Posted on Wednesday, May 5, 2004 @ 12:58 pm
Filed Under Bureaucrats
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It's not often I feel sympathy for Scott Adams' idiot Pointy Haired Boss, so yesterday's edition deserves a comment.

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From the Ground Up

Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2004 @ 3:14 pm
Filed Under Bureaucrats
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In my experience, absolutely no bureaucractic entity (yuck, jowo--don't talk like that!) is truly created from the ground up. There's always an organizational context, a political context, legacy data, system integration issues, staffing issues--and it's impossible (and rarely desirable) to remove those contexts and continuities from the new organization's environment. On the other hand, the usual object is to move the organizational focus, which is nearly always gainful (and painful).

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Memories of Suite Judy Blue Eyes

Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 @ 9:01 pm
Filed Under Army Career, Bureaucrats, Stateside, Stories
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Bought a copy of the original CS&N album from iTunes yesterday, and am listening at work.  Suddenly it's 1970, and I'm back at Fort HuachucaAmazing.

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Pepys: of diaries and bureaucracies

Posted on Monday, December 1, 2003 @ 7:42 am
Filed Under Bureaucrats, Readings
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Pepys was a delightful diarist, and worth reading for all sorts of reasons. One which (naturally) appeals to me is that he was a professional bureaucrat in a time when bureaucracies were new to European government. Bureaus were small, too; they seem to have run the Royal Navy with just a handful of clerks. (I seem to be ignoring the admirals....) Part of the fun when I read Pepys is watching him feel his way around the organizational issues.

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