Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c54IR // #c54Synthesis

In 2006, Avinash Kaushik and Ronny Kohavi, two data analysis professionals who were then working at Intuit and Microsoft, respectively, came up with the acronym HiPPO to summarize the dominant decision-making style at most companies. It stands for “highest-paid person’s opinion.”

— In our words · Source: Machine, Platform, Crowd (Andrew McAfee & Erik Brynjolfsson)

[Use when]

When a meeting is about to be decided by rank instead of evidence.

[Why it matters]

The name for the old decision regime: whoever is paid most decides most — the exact habit the data-driven rebalancing is meant to kill.

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