[trhoad]

I must be stupid because I understood very little of this. The cynic in me says it sounds a lot like pseudo-intellectual-babble, but maybe I'm wrong.

I can pick out so many parts that seem to be an extremely odd take on things, but this one stood out:

> the total time spent communicating will grow quadratically as the work capacity of the organization grows linearly.

The assumption being that everybody needs to speak to everybody else as the organisation grows, which is a spectacularly daft assumption.

[mellavora]

It is actually a fundamental insight. The same principle explains why the cortex has developed functional areas, and the advantages of mylenation.

It also underlies Dunbar's rule on group sizes and how organizations scale.

The point is exactly as you say, everyone does NOT need to speak to everyone else-- but you then have to structure the communication channels. This is a different challenge in a 15 person org than a 3 person org. Let alone a 150 person org.

If you've ever been on a team which went from 5 to 8 people, you've seen this play out. God help you if the team crosses 15 people and you don't realize this triggers a phase shift.