A Rant Against Maximization
medium.com
Saved by Andrew Tam and
A Rant Against Maximization
Overpowered Metrics Eat Underspecified Goals
ribbonfarm.com
People, communities, society, governments, investors, and employees alike are all starting to say: “I’m not interested in your business. Business is obsolete. The real question is: can your company do anything more than just ‘business’? What can you do to inspire, amaze, delight, surprise, elevate, enlighten, and better me, and the community around
... See moreUmair Haque • Betterness: Economics for Humans (Kindle Single)
Despite what Silicon Valley’s productivity prophets preach, cranking out more widgets faster doesn’t equal a life well-lived. Their gospel of optimisation ignores the fundamental question: what’s the point of being 10x more productive if we’re not 10x more fulfilled?
337 / Productivity’s empty promise
In business, maximization is often the minimization of joy.
I can’t imagine anything less interesting in business than maximizing shareholder value or trying to eek a few more bucks out of something or someone.
To take it further, maximization as a concept just isn’t… Show more
What’s more, Friedman’s narrow view on the business of business has lost credibility: in the face of twenty-first-century challenges, firms need a purpose far more inspiring than merely maximising shareholder value and, as Chapter 6 illustrates, a growing number of enterprises are finding ways to give themselves one.
Kate Raworth • Doughnut Economics: The must-read book that redefines economics for a world in crisis
Peter Drucker said that “making money for a company is like oxygen for a person; if you don’t have enough of it you’re out of the game.” In other words, profitability is a performance requirement for all businesses, but it is not a purpose. Extending Drucker’s metaphor, companies who take profit as their purpose are like people who think life is ab
... See more