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Tuesday, January 03, 2023
Alexei Sayle on the psychology of managerial incompetence
What changed then, over 40 years? If government ministers were useless years ago, why were they less useless?
My hypothesis is that recent generations of government ministers do not recognise the existence of intelligent, knowledgeable people. They have surrounded themselves by nomarks, pushing away everyone who might be difficult in an intellectual or moral way.
Who need experts?
Previous generations drew in experts as a defence. They knew smart people who knew smart people.
Recent lots are drawn from a political generation. They don't know many people outside the London-Oxford-Cambridge triangle. They don't really know anything about business or manufacturing because they haven't done it. Job experience as a banker merely educates people about banking.
What changed then, over 40 years? If government ministers were useless years ago, why were they less useless?
ReplyDeleteMy hypothesis is that recent generations of government ministers do not recognise the existence of intelligent, knowledgeable people. They have surrounded themselves by nomarks, pushing away everyone who might be difficult in an intellectual or moral way.
Who need experts?
Previous generations drew in experts as a defence. They knew smart people who knew smart people.
Recent lots are drawn from a political generation. They don't know many people outside the London-Oxford-Cambridge triangle. They don't really know anything about business or manufacturing because they haven't done it. Job experience as a banker merely educates people about banking.
They don't know how much they don't know.
My favourite line was the one about the KGB.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Prime Minister who thought that FSB was a travel agency.
ReplyDelete