[borroka]

I believe that we are on the same page, as I wrote in my comment.

"Of course, one might say, but how inefficient or ineffective are all these meetings, e-mails, notifications on Slack, etc., I just want to code or get my brilliant ideas accepted without further discussion. And we all agree there are better or worse ways to get things done at the organizational level (that's an important point), and some companies work better than others and some stages of company life are more conducive to good work and good results"

There are better and worse ways of doing things in a company, but what hunter-gatherers bands were doing is no consequence.

Where we do not agree if when you say that, in this context, starting with anthropology makes sense. And I think it makes zero sense, since the goals, structure and size of hunter-gatherers bands and large work organizations are not even remotely comparable.

Articles of this type are meaningless, they try to be thought-provoking, but they are just trying to impress the gullible. "I never thought about that", yes, because it does not make any sense, not because you are a fool.

A sports team, e.g., soccer team, is comparable in size and goals (win/not lose, die/not die, reproduce/not reproduce, it is clear what is good and what is bad) to a hunter-gatherer band, but what kind of lessons should a coach draw from an anthropological study of hunter-gatherer bands? Nothing, zero, other than some feel-good stories about being a team and not just a collection of individuals, supporting the weak and the elderly.

I have no clue how the editor thought it was an article worth publishing.

[jaccarmac]

I don't think we agree that much.

> And I think [starting with anthropology] makes zero sense, since the goals, structure and size of hunter-gatherers bands and large work organizations are not even remotely comparable.

The relative size of these groups are obviously different.

The relative structure is exactly what is under discussion.

Relative goals: Now we're getting somewhere. There may be some people who "just want to code or get my brilliant ideas accepted without further discussion", but that doesn't seem particularly interesting to me. I - and I believe many other people - are interested in a society which achieves goals other than individual aggrandizement or increased production. Anthropology provides a perspective on what groups of people valued and to which degree they flourished. I suppose I might just be a simpleton, but supporting the weak and elderly read to me as rather worthy pursuits, not to mention hard problems.