Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1130IR // #c1130Synthesis

"Every two or three days a lot of balls was especially prepared by the foreman, who counted out a definite number of perfect balls, and added a recorded number of defective balls of each kind."

— In our words · Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

[Use when]

You rely on reviewers or QA and have no way to measure what they miss.

[Why it matters]

Neither inspectors nor over-inspectors could tell the seeded lot from real ones, so each count could be scored against a known answer. Taylor says this removed "all temptation to slight their work or make false returns."

Filed under situations:When you’re building the thing, not just planning it

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1113"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant…Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes. #c1114"…after a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder…You are tempted to raise a quota because someone beat it. #c1115"…since they were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the…You are setting up pay for work where you can't easily see the pace.

Same situation, different book

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