Adam Williams
Felicitas Pojtinger 🌅I'm not sure if we've ever been at a point in history before where competence was an active hindrance to your professional success in the way it is now
IrisYep!
*laughs bitterly*
Drey
Elias Mårtenson@pojntfx it's been like that in politics for a while, but other than that, I think you're right.
Marco
Roadskater, Ph.D.
Mistake not ...@roadskater @Moaske @pojntfx check 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW ... no need to drive to moscow just for that.
peachfrontsame but give it 3 more years & we'll be there i'm sure
Mia ‘Meetings? I Abstain’ Luna Tearmoon@roadskater @Moaske @pojntfx had a lot of world history back in school and people really like to downplay the guy's achievements in developing the mostly feudal state that it still was (not to diminish the atrocities committed in any way however)
Dr Know
Jakob@pojntfx Are you observing this in your personal/professional life or is this a post about »abstract« CEOs, founders, politicians, internet celebrities, movie stars, whatever?
@jdw Abstract! I'm very glad to be working with very talented people :)
incubus loudmouth 🏴@jdw @pojntfx its well known how autistic people who might be tactless but best performance of the crew still get paid less, get promoted less & are more easily fired. even people who are tactful & brownnose, if they are putting effort into the job rather than the aesthetics of the job will still be rated lower. as mark fisher put it, all that is solid melts into PR. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/844582-the-idealized-market-was-supposed-to-deliver-friction-free-exchanges
Xenophon
Maaike
Simon ZerafaCompetence could imply independence of thought and action.
Those who discourage competence don't want their minions acting independently.
TrueNorthSpice 🇨🇦In my experience it's been that way 50+ years.
🍁voilà-DCKIM🍁@pojntfx it's stemming from corporate corruption. That's where idiots band together to internally publish against people through the rumour mill. Every organization has this feature.
Sadly, you eventually end up with one or two people in every office that know what they are doing. Everyone else is a dud, and those dud band together.
When there are workers unions involved, you find that it's a race to the bottom with people burning the books and stuffing their own pockets.
xs4me2Very disturbing and annoying indeed… it almost seems like stupidity is a virtue…
derptron
Daniël Franke 
@pojntfx Yeah although not sure if competence is the right word, I think "caring about your work" might be more accurate. Either way, it sucks horribly.
Theolodian@pojntfx interesting point! I thought that it was just a British class system anachronism. 🤔
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@theolodian @pojntfx The British class system is what build the industrial revolution and the Empire.
If you're born into the wrong class you can't be an officer or a manager. So you get promoted to NCO or foreman and get stuck. Resulting in LOTS of REALLY GOOD NCOs and foremen, the people who actually get the work done.
Without the class system these people would have got promoted up further to their level of incompetence, hence no industrial revolution or Empire.
[This is a theory. I expect there are others to choose from.]
@TimWardCam @pojntfx dunno. I’ll sit here twiddling my thumbs, not my problem to solve if I’m not the right social class.
Schroedingers_Cat@TimWardCam @theolodian @pojntfx I think you have at least the essence of it. It used to be that those in charge were just happy to be in charge and let others do the work, people who were actually competent at it.
We have moved to a place where those in charge have come to assume that they are there because they are the best at doing the work. Which they totally are not.
And they punish people who call them out on this.
I prefer the times when the likes of Musk would say "I know nothing about making cars - but I hire the people who do know about it, and trust them".
@theolodian @TimWardCam @pojntfx Well, there has long been a situation where management are the people who agree to new software, because it provides them with what they want. But nobody asks the people who have to use it day by day.
"Oh it can give us all these reports that we need. We will take it". Ignoring the fact that it will take the people who produce the data longer to do that, and with less satisfaction*.
AI is just the next level of this. Managers think they know what their staff do, and AI can give them a tool to get it done, so they think.
@theolodian @TimWardCam @pojntfx * And so the staff will only do the parts of the work that provide management with nice reports, not the parts that are important.
cognitively accessible math@pojntfx I think it's what happens when something's collapsing.
Competence might be helpful in the rebuilding process? Can we get ready for that?
Competence might be helpful in the rebuilding process? Can we get ready for that?
Neil Kandalgaonkar@pojntfx It’s the other way around, IMO. In most civilizations, power is highly unequal, and survival depends on patronage, not personal excellence.
The post-World War II order in democratic countries was an unusual time.
Jocelynephiliac 
@pojntfx well, at least since the Renaissance. Fitting, given the way service to AI has become a religion