Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1135IR // #c1135Synthesis

"The mechanism of management must not be mistaken for its essence, or underlying philosophy. Precisely the same mechanism will in one case produce disastrous results and in another the most beneficent."

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

[Use when]

You are adopting another company's process tools as a quick fix.

[Why it matters]

Taylor lists his own tools, including time study, instruction cards, slide rules and the planning room, and warns they fail when used without real cooperation with the workers. He says rushed adoptions have ended in strikes.

Filed under situations:When the team is looking to you to lead

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

#c1558The Seminal Fire: Active Logos, Passive Matter & Cosmic ConflagrationScaling a creative franchise, open-source project, or decentralized team where you cannot micromanage every…From Lives of Eminent Philosophers #c1543The Upward and Downward Road of FireUse when a leader or team tries to eliminate all internal conflict between competing departments (e.g., risk…From Lives of Eminent Philosophers #c1517The Daemonic Mean and the Art of the Severe LoverRecruiting and forging high-potential proteges who are immune to cheap praise, or writing a mentor-student…From Handbook of Platonism #c1506Elemental Daimones, Star-Vehicles, and Invisible BoltsUse when deciding what a founder or CEO should personally sign versus delegate, or when winding down a legacy…From Handbook of Platonism