The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)
It's important to be mindful that the successful examples of flat / bossless organisations often discussed on HN are massively profitable.What's missing from this picture? Statistics and case studies of flat/bossless organisations where money is very tight.There is severe survivor bias at play. Massive profitability allows you to get away with just about anything.People think that the market rewards virtue or merit; that profit is the reward for this or that method, strategy or culture. Not really. Market systems are agnostic to how a company is run. If you stumble on a gold mine, the market doesn't reward you because you flog your miners. It likewise doesn't reward you because you pamper your miners. It rewards you for having gold.For every Valve and Github, there is a Microsoft or an Oracle.