Stateless Code | Mandatory is Poison @StatelessCode | Uploaded April 2023 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
A bold assertion. Can I back it up? It's also controversial, but I'm an ideological statue toppler.
Mandatory here is defined as a "comply or else" command. The poison of mandatory tends to erode culture and trust within organizations. Enforcement of mandatory takes away the choices people would have made for themselves in the absence of intervention.
Are mandates sometimes necessary? Chemotherapy is also poison. When facing something life-threatening like cancer, it's usually seen as a less bad alternative than leaving the cancer unchecked. But you don't give chemotherapy to healthy people. That's just poisoning them.
Good ideas do not require mandates. If it actually is a good idea, all you need to do as a leader is remove the roadblocks to adoption. The difference between "got to" (the stick) and "get to" (the carrot) has far-reaching cultural implications. If you take a command-and-control approach, you will drive everybody except for the compliant worker drones away from you.
If you treat the people you lead like children, you will always have an immature organization. Don't be a tyrant.
This doesn't just apply to politics and businesses. It also applies to families and churches, and looser associations like your group of friends.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction and definitions
00:01:34 Chemotherapy analogy
00:02:37 Comply or else takes away choices from people and treats them like children
00:04:15 There is a relational and cultural cost of mandatory
00:06:00 Iatrogenics (harm done by the healer) and the "We have to do something" mentality
00:06:55 Oppression of the mandatory gets worse in larger scale organizations
00:07:45 Mandatory shows lack of trust from leadership and erodes trust in leadership
00:08:54 Decisions should be made the closest to the bottom you possibly can
00:10:03 Examples of when non-intervention has been shown to be better
00:10:24 Swedish non-intervention in COVID producing the lowest increase in deaths above expected
00:12:12 Economics: Top-Down Keynesian Econometrics vs Austrian Subjectivism and Marginal Utility
00:13:54 John James Cowperthwaite and proactive non-intervention in Hong Kong
00:16:05 Good ideas don't require mandates to be adopted
00:18:00 Won't there be chaos?
00:19:45 What about actual bad actors?
00:21:59 Won't logistics and operations take a hit?
00:23:42 An example of how leaders can inspire trust and build culture without relying on mandating things
#mandatoryispoison #leadership #culture #bottomup #innovation #austrianeconomics #lockdowns #covid #simonsinek #startwithwhy #pjorourke #eattherich #taleb #antifragile #menger #mises #rothbard #keynes #cowperthwaite #hongkong #sweden #carrot #stick
See other related StatelessCode videos:
- Why Stateless Code playlist youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9kkbu1kLUeO5Htd6ZHJVZO1hrAGkFS1z
Resources that influenced and inspired this video:
- Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile_(book)
- How great leaders inspire action by Simon Sinek ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action/comments
- Simon Sinek: To earn trust, we must extend trust linkedin.com/posts/simonsinek_when-we-trust-someone-we-can-count-on-them-activity-7050117490948894720-FSM0
- Eat the Rich by P. J. O'Rourke en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_Rich_(book)
This video is CC0 - No rights reserved. (YouTube doesn't allow this option when publishing.) All code is released under the UNLICENSE. Stateless Code denies the concept of "intellectual property". Copying is not stealing.
A bold assertion. Can I back it up? It's also controversial, but I'm an ideological statue toppler.
Mandatory here is defined as a "comply or else" command. The poison of mandatory tends to erode culture and trust within organizations. Enforcement of mandatory takes away the choices people would have made for themselves in the absence of intervention.
Are mandates sometimes necessary? Chemotherapy is also poison. When facing something life-threatening like cancer, it's usually seen as a less bad alternative than leaving the cancer unchecked. But you don't give chemotherapy to healthy people. That's just poisoning them.
Good ideas do not require mandates. If it actually is a good idea, all you need to do as a leader is remove the roadblocks to adoption. The difference between "got to" (the stick) and "get to" (the carrot) has far-reaching cultural implications. If you take a command-and-control approach, you will drive everybody except for the compliant worker drones away from you.
If you treat the people you lead like children, you will always have an immature organization. Don't be a tyrant.
This doesn't just apply to politics and businesses. It also applies to families and churches, and looser associations like your group of friends.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction and definitions
00:01:34 Chemotherapy analogy
00:02:37 Comply or else takes away choices from people and treats them like children
00:04:15 There is a relational and cultural cost of mandatory
00:06:00 Iatrogenics (harm done by the healer) and the "We have to do something" mentality
00:06:55 Oppression of the mandatory gets worse in larger scale organizations
00:07:45 Mandatory shows lack of trust from leadership and erodes trust in leadership
00:08:54 Decisions should be made the closest to the bottom you possibly can
00:10:03 Examples of when non-intervention has been shown to be better
00:10:24 Swedish non-intervention in COVID producing the lowest increase in deaths above expected
00:12:12 Economics: Top-Down Keynesian Econometrics vs Austrian Subjectivism and Marginal Utility
00:13:54 John James Cowperthwaite and proactive non-intervention in Hong Kong
00:16:05 Good ideas don't require mandates to be adopted
00:18:00 Won't there be chaos?
00:19:45 What about actual bad actors?
00:21:59 Won't logistics and operations take a hit?
00:23:42 An example of how leaders can inspire trust and build culture without relying on mandating things
#mandatoryispoison #leadership #culture #bottomup #innovation #austrianeconomics #lockdowns #covid #simonsinek #startwithwhy #pjorourke #eattherich #taleb #antifragile #menger #mises #rothbard #keynes #cowperthwaite #hongkong #sweden #carrot #stick
See other related StatelessCode videos:
- Why Stateless Code playlist youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9kkbu1kLUeO5Htd6ZHJVZO1hrAGkFS1z
Resources that influenced and inspired this video:
- Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile_(book)
- How great leaders inspire action by Simon Sinek ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action/comments
- Simon Sinek: To earn trust, we must extend trust linkedin.com/posts/simonsinek_when-we-trust-someone-we-can-count-on-them-activity-7050117490948894720-FSM0
- Eat the Rich by P. J. O'Rourke en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_Rich_(book)
This video is CC0 - No rights reserved. (YouTube doesn't allow this option when publishing.) All code is released under the UNLICENSE. Stateless Code denies the concept of "intellectual property". Copying is not stealing.
