Benʼs working notes

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Organizations don’t do anything, people in organizations do things

The direct consequence of this is that one should never put a verb in front of an inanimate object. This may be too extreme: Is it actually better to say “People have used computer simulations for discovery …” than “Computer simulations have aided in discovery …?”

Human brains put all entities in the same bucket

Related

  • Life Style Guide
  • Inspired by Yuval Levin on A Time to Build - Econtalk
  • Could you design incentives so everyone had skin-in-the-game around institutional purpose and mission?
  • Nobody is resigning for failing to do their institutional role
  • Heuretics come out of people’s brains (TECHNOLOGY IS PEOPLE)
  • Institutions shape how individuals interact
  • What if you did skin in the game analyses on institutions?

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Life Style Guide

Institutions need to differentiate between individuals inside and outside the institution

Institutions shape how individuals interact

Individual actions reflect on Institutions

Trusted Hierarchies are one way that centralized coordination can happen

Creating an organizational structure around a project prematurely can have many downsides