There is arguably something paradoxical about criticizing the denigration of the primitiveon grounds that it is primitive
I have the strong suspicion the above quote was cherrypicked. Boas is not criticizing cultural evolution directly in the quote. Instead, he is pointing out the similarities between the violent in-group tendencies of the "civilized" west and hunter-gatherer societies.
Reduces my opinion of this author and this book
We have stood out againstany grading of cultures in hierarchical systems which would place our own culture at thetop and place the other cultures of the world in a descending scale according to the extentthat they differ from ours. . .
Fascinating. No wonder we're all relativists
Second, from the seed’s point of view, the only alternative tothis happening is catastrophe—death, to put a finer point on i
What if we just... flash froze the poppy seed (so it's not dead) and pinned it for wall decor? Is this catastrophe? The seed is still... "alive," or still has the potential to become a poppy. It's just staying a seed.
is for the seed’s trueexpression to be stifled, its naturally imbued purpose to go unrealized.
now this is a suspicious normative claim. Is it "good" for the poppy seed to become a poppy rather than a seed on my bagel? I don't think so. Just because something is likely to happen does not give it moral strength. That's letting entropy decide your morals.
The more theuniverse seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless
empirically id bet very smart people people tend to be depressed more often than people of average intelligence
time has enabled us to seethat company strategy must take into account the broader consequences of the environmentand social impact of their products
Why?
A common thread with most long-duration, slow-growth companies is that they havebecome so ‘mission critical’ to their customers that tight integration develops betweenproducer and consumer
Reminds me of the relationship between eukaryotes and mitochondria
while maintaining connectiondensity across larger parts of the organizatio
presumably this is referring to apple's cross-functional hierarchy, which indeed leads to a denser network than a normal top-down hierarchy
haring, not moat building, offers the best path tosuccess in the Information Age.
Fascinating claim. Is this referring to NZS (non-zero sum)? Help your community, and the community will help you. Basically claiming direct and indirect reciprocity work better in the modern age than ever before due to information transparency.
But intangibles like honor and trustworthiness aren't visible online?
our potential for innovation remains quite high
Is this still "innovation" or just "rapid deployment of good ideas my friends had"? I agree this captures what matters, but I think the language is starting to sound like an advertisement.
he honest answer is that our potential fororganic innovation is lower.
Not obviously true. Larger groups may run into groupthink problems more often and it's more difficult to cultivate obsessive passion in large groups.
We have intentionally eliminated hierarchy to keep the team flat –everyone has the same title: Investor.
Reminds me of Benchmark VC
They cantheoretically handle either a narrow or wide style bias and remain densely connected.
Should be removed to emphasize that the number of nodes greatly limits the number of project streams available to an org.
here are only three possible structures that form functional, healthycompanies that can slow down time.
Says who? Needs citation. Also, "style bias" isn't a central term in network theory according to wikipedia. This is a business school appropriation.