Command and Control vs. the Civil Service

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "produce evidence to support the whims of whoever is in charge" - that's the problem with Cummings

and his wish to trash everything.

It was almost a law of business, Buffett wrote, that institutions will resist change, waste time, produce evidence to support the whims of whoever is in charge, and mindlessly imitate the behavior of rival companies. The lesson he took from his insight was to organize his company in ways that minimized the dangers of systemic failure and to invest in other companies that also seemed to understand this risk.

Buffett’s law has entered the annals of business theory, and been held up by an array of leaders—among them Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s most influential adviser.

This doesn't make any sense. "Resisting change" is pretty much the opposite of "supporting the whims of whoever is in charge". Especially in a system where an election can suddenly change who is in charge. It's being far too generous to Cummings to say he's advocating Buffett's ideas. Cummings' ideology is "we're in charge now, fuck the rest of you, we can change what we want". As you say, piratical.