Word of the Day

Kakistocracy

noun

Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

The Hawaiian Vacation Employee

Another definition of a term I use regularly - The Hawaiian Vacation Employee. This is the person on any sizable team who should be sent on an all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii for the duration of the project, as things will go faster, better, and cheaper without them.

This can be anyone in the company, and given the typical payscales and large effect of their actions, can also include the CEO.

The Big Lie

All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

And yes, I know, Godwin may be invoked. Doesn't make it less true.

For further clarification - "The Big Lie" is like "The 100th Idiot", a single short phrase to convey a particular meaning that I'll likely be using a lot. In the context of startups it means "Getting enough people to believe a "story" in order to keep the money flowing." The simple rules are:

• If you're going to lie, lie big. Lie so big it's almost unbelievable.
• Repeat that lie as often as you can. Work to get many others to repeat it.
• Stick with that lie, no matter what, no matter how ridiculous, even when it's proven to be a lie.

The 100th Idiot

"100 idiots make idiotic plans, and carry them out. All but one justly fail. The hundredth idiot whose plans succeeded through pure luck, is immediately convinced he's a genius."

Iain M. Banks, Matter

I'll be using the term "100th Idiot" a lot, I expect, best you know where it comes from. And reading Iain Banks books is worthwhile in itself.

Schrödinger's CEO

Schrödinger's CEO
[shroh:ding:erz siːiːˈəʊ]
noun

A CEO who is apparently both simultaneously a genius inventor of a technology and single handedly responsible for building a business based upon it, yet also completely unaware and has no knowledge of major technological, safety, and business flaws in her company despite it being common knowledge to lay members of the public for years. See Elizabeth Holmes ...

I'm confused...

I'm confused and don't know what to do. Re-incarnation of Steve Jobs and Theranos genius/founder/CEO Elizabeth Holmes tells me that backup plans are for losers, while the other re-incarnation of Steve Jobs and uBeam genius/founder/CEO Meredith Perry tells me the exact opposite.

"Always have 2 backup plans. Always try 2-3 approaches in parallel to increase your chance of success. "

So not just a backup, but a backup to the backup. And maybe a backup to that too.

So how do I follow the advice of these geniuses? Do I have to choose? I'm always hearing what role models they are, so they have to both be right!

And if it's not both of them that are right, one of them has to be. Because otherwise the only other option is that they are both just spouting utter nonsense they made up because it sounds CEO-ish, and it's been picked up by an unthinking and unquestioning press and simply repeated without thought.