Some further thoughts on "the business idiot" theory. I was once told that the main weakness of engineers/technical people is that they want their work to be used (!!). Yes. But imagine how much time you'd have for politicking and positioning for power if you weren't "distracted" by doing actual useful stuff. I often wonder if this is behind technical people always losing out. Earlier relevant post: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/how-tech-loses-out/
How Tech Loses Out over at Companies, Countries and Continents - Bert Hubert's writings
This article is part of a series on (European) innovation and capabilities. Hi everyone, This is a transcript of my presentation over at the European Microwave Week 2020, actually held in 2021. You can find the video here and the slides here. I’d like to thank Frank van Vliet, general chair of the EMW, for inviting me to do this talk. The words have only been edited lightly - it is still presentation style, so here and there the sentences are not written like how they’d be in a more formal piece of work.
berthub.eu · Bert Hubert's writings
Link author: 
bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦@bert_hubert@eupolicy.social
![Another "law" of his is "Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy":
In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.[83]
He eventually restated it as:
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration. Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc. The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.[84]](https://eupolicy.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/722/295/393/241/750/original/6838df2c4a8478a1.png)