Seeing like a software company
The big idea of James C. Scott’s Seeing Like A State can be expressed in three points: Modern organizations exert control by maximising “legibility”: by altering the system so that all parts of it can be measured, reported on, and so on. However, these organizations are dependent on a huge amount of “illegible” work: work that cannot be tracked or planned for, but is nonetheless essential. Increasing legibility thus often actually lowers efficiency – but the other benefits are high enough that organizations are typically willing to do so regardless. By “legible”, I mean work that is predictable, well-estimated, has a paper trail, and doesn’t depend on any contingent factors (like the availability of specific people). Quarterly planning, OKRs, and Jira all exist to make…
