# The good idea fairy is the failure mode of a single decision maker “The good idea fairy” is what causes the commander to get it into their head that something is a good idea and nobody will tell them no. There are many historical examples of this: Napoleon or Hitler wanting to invade Russia, the Kodak founder wanting to build an instant video thing. The good idea fairy is what decision by committee is designed to mitigate. [[Decisions made by committees lead to median results]], which *can be a good thing* in several situations. I suspect that the situations where you want a committee boils down to a bunch of [[Nassim Taleb]]-ian concepts: whether or not you’re in extremistan and whether there is infinite or capped downside/upside. In situations with capped downside and infinite upside committees are probably bad. In normalstan committees are probably good. In situations with infinite downside (COVID?) and capped upside the situation is more unclear. On the one hand a committee prevents Napoleon from invading Russia. On the other hand it also keeps the COVID vaccine from getting out for months? I originally heard of this from [episode 13: eigenrobot vs Steven godofsky — robot friends — Overcast](https://overcast.fm/+pYCxXEXYw/46:44) ### Related * [[Individuals vs Collectives]] * [[Bell Labs was a dance of individuals and institution, prototyping and manufacturing, invention and discovery]] * [[Ambitious individuals are not empowered to do anything besides start companies]] * [[Bell Labs empowered young people]] * [[People who have done a thing should be in charge of a thing]]