HN Books @HNBooksMonth

But neither the market nor elections gets the right answer either in terms of "correct" or "legitimate".

this book covers the head space you are in ("homo sap has gotten in over his head") and you should read it now:

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...

⬐ Bradley_A_Pliam

That book looks quite fascinating but it advocates change through each individual (within a class of engineers), therefore it is not placing the urgency that is needed right now for change in our society, banking instead on long-term changes that will be too little too late.

FWIW, it is not that implausible that the world moves toward authoritarianism. This is the most crude but effective path toward achieving coordinated responses to a centralized mandate. I'm hoping for a different solution, think pervasive messaging without the force of the law. Not as with the Matrix, but as in "Life is Beautiful" the dad protects and elicits advantageous life-saving behavior from his son.

Also I wanted to mention Joseph Merz argument (https://www.planetcritical.com/p/urgency-action-and-ethics-j...) that it is too hard to go down the educational route, he wants to focus on direct influence of human behavior. Sound evil? It's basically trying to do what advertisers have done to us for decades or more.

⬐ PaulHoule

Livingston is far from the "lifestyle anarchism" that Bookchin warned about

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-soci...

that is, Livingston provides answers (that can be applied at the workgroup level) to the problem of people being over their heads with technology aimed specifically at technologists who are in the belly of the beast and are facing the problem directly.

If you want some top down answer to the problem you might as well pray to God because that's as likely to work as the alternatives.

⬐ Bradley_A_Pliam

If there isn't a top down effort, it will be a sluggish, "I'll get to when I feel like it" approach to dealing with existential threats to the human race. We have to come to terms with the fact that utopian dreams must be, to a large extent, deferred in order to do what is right for the planet with an every shrinking window of time. That means utilizing existing power structures. As I said, authoritarianism is a present reality that gets things done, though freedom-loving Americans fail to notice this. I don't want authoritarianism, I'm hoping for a signaling and messaging from influencers and power-brokers to coalesce a national response to urgent issues.

Personally I think KPIs (particularly when you are asking the question "how do I adopt KPIs") are toxic.

In a non-startup company there is generally one bottleneck that holds the organization back and has to be controlled

https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0...

In a startup company or if you are trying to develop a "revolutionary" product there are usual several bottlenecks that need to be attacked. For instance going to the moon you have to solve problems from a list such as

  * propulsion
  * navigation
  * life support

if you are looking at a 10% improvement you need to find the one bottleneck (e.g. "The Goal") if you need to get a 10x improvement you will hit several bottlenecks on the way there and the writings of W.L. Livingston apply

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...

When you use goals to "destroy the competition" or "change the world", goals are a powerful technique. If you are setting goals because somebody told you to set goals or somebody else sets goals you are going to drive yourself to distraction.

This

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...

is a manifesto for "small groups" to solve hard problems.

see https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706... and https://www.amazon.com/Friends-High-Places-W-Livingston/dp/0... for practical applications of Ashby thinking.

⬐ hkon

Do you know any other books around the same topic. I'm not sure what good keywords would be for this. Ebooks preferrably. Looks interesting.

⬐ walterbell

Free 2017 ebook with overview of cybernetics: https://www.google.com/amp/newbooksnetwork.com/liss-c-werner...

Many resources: http://pangaro.com/definition-cybernetics.html

⬐ hkon

Thanks! Many of the articles on pangaro.com were quite interesting.

⬐ kaycebasques

It’d be nice to list the names of the books, rather than just links. I’m curious about your suggestions, but don’t necessarily want to visit Amazon.

⬐ doppelganger27

The books are "Have Fun at Work" and "Friends in High Places," both by William L. Livingston

See

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...

it has a checklist to answer your question.

I am not so sure it is either/or. Probably your product/business people are as concerned about the success of your product as you are, so if you bring up this issue that communication is a problem, maybe they'll be responsive.

Working across time zones require some adaptation. Often I have meetings at 8am in the morning with people in Europe and Asia, sometimes I have meetings at 8pm at night. If you have a few people who do liasoning on each side, they could each shift schedules by 1 hour and then you have a three hour overlap. You can get better at written communications, there really are a lot of options.

Definitely when you can't get in the face of a "product manager" there are some people who really won't do the job, and sometimes they won't if you can get in their face.