Institutions are full of automated systems—bureaucratic procedures—which dominate outward institutional appearance. More often than not, these systems persist far longer than their designers do. Focusing on them obscures the true, underlying sources of institutional health.
2/n
Moreover, institutions often lean on outside institutions. That a bank branch is able to pay a utility to keep its lights on tells us nothing about the bank’s own functionality; we should generalize this observation to a broad range of core features that may be outsourced.
3/n
In addition to outward trappings, proceduralized institutions cut against diagnosis from within.
Bureaucracy incentivizes people to follow scripts; it does not reward questioning them. Over time knowledge of the principles on which the scripts were built fades.
4/n
With all this in mind, there is a good rule of thumb we can use: fighting institutions do not fail.
Organizations engaged in conflict are surprisingly likely to be healthy, because surviving attacks requires some degree of health—there must be someone repairing the damage.
5/n
Two questions:
First, how real is the conflict? Cartels and rubber-stamp parliaments often disguise their coordination with performative conflict.
Second, how big is the besieged institution? Large institutions can absorb attacks and resort to automated defense mechanisms
6/n
One of the myriad ways through which institutional prestige far outlives institutional health. Through this analysis we can begin to see why—and maybe even predict the next Soviet collapse.
7/n
To really apply this beyond a particular institutions, to society as a whole, I recommend taking a look at Great Founder Theory.
Competition for power unfolds over a strategic landscape.
As I explained in Empire Theory Part I, we can split this landscape into three power classes: high, mid, and low. In Part II, I illustrate how these classes vie for power:
Even those aligned on overall ends may choose to compete over power.
But with competition comes coordination; the dance between the two defines the landscape. Even unaligned actors may be induced to coordinate against others.
2/n
I go into detail about each interaction in the piece, but the tense interaction between mid and high is the most important part of the analysis.
The main variable is resources. High must incentivize mid not to raid the resources concentrated at the top.
3/n
The flip-side of the Internet being a surveillance technology is that the Internet is also a communications technology.
In 2020, it is obvious how much personal, social, and political life has been thoroughly subsumed into the Internet. At scale, we have a new social world.
In this essay, I argue that the most impactful individuals in history all did so by founding functional institutions. Great Founder Theory proceeds from this:
Most institutions are non-functional. This does not necessarily mean that the buildings are on fire or that layoffs are expected. Rather, most non-functional institutions are merely inadequately imitating functional institutions.
2/n
In a non-functional institution, everyone works towards the same socially-rewarded goals, rather than doing specialized work that combines to achieve the institution’s nominal function, such as winning wars or generating profits.
3/n
My research focuses on the people who have had the most impact on society and history.
We call those people Great Founders, those who founded exceptionally functional and long-lived institutions, affecting society long after they are gone: samoburja.com/great-founder-…
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