# The causes of bad systems

## Magnifying individual faults

In any group, everyone's [understanding](understanding.md) and ability increases over time, but *also* their foolishness and incompetence.

Bad systems arise from relatively unimportant details at first:

- The members don't [respect](image.md) their leadership.
- Someone is promoted to leadership who isn't the best [fit](purpose.md) for the role. This can come from that person having poor [boundaries](people-boundaries.md) with others, no skill, or [evil](morality-evil.md) intent.
- Some of the organization's [rules](people-rules.md) are irrelevant and nobody updated it.
- The organization must respond to other outside groups for many of their [decisions](people-decisions.md).

As the organization scales and everyone [specializes](jobs-specialization.md), the members have informal [conversations](people-conversation.md) with one another about the [group's](groups-member.md) issues. Once multiple people agree on how the group's [culture](people-culture.md) doesn't address practical things, they feel [confident](understanding-certainty.md) that the thing is [reality](reality.md) and not merely [an improbable event](math.md).

APPLICATION: People slowly permit [tyranny](power-types.md) into their lives when they accept what the leadership does. Since [power-hungry](power-types.md) people don't tend to demarcate a stopping point, that slow [consent](people-contracts.md) will eventually go too far, but often at the cost of many lives and many destroyed aspects of [civilization](jobs-specialization.md).

Once people know they're not [delusional](reality.md), they're more willing to break the group's [rules](people-rules.md). Eventually, the entire organization suffers collective decay as [motivations](purpose.md) toward self-interest override the motivation for any [collective good](morality.md).

APPLICATION: Bad leaders are concerned about money, mostly because they're not thinking about members' [purposes](purpose.md) or [considering](understanding.md) the well-being of the organization.

The [moral](morality.md) decay among individuals comes through several key motivators:

- Pressure to maintain [a numerical standard](math.md).
- [Fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) that leads to silence about perceived issues, including [conflicts](people-conflicts.md) of interest.
- The [dominant leadership](groups-small.md) has a nearly [cult](culture-cults.md)-like [influence](influence.md) over the [youngest members](maturity.md) of the group.
- The secondary leadership is weak compared to the dominant leaders and many lower-ranking members, meaning they're [easy to control](image-distortion.md) and not [respected](power.md).
- The group is *very* [influential](influence.md) in its [specialization](jobs-specialization.md), meaning they're often above accountability and can justify [immoral actions](morality.md) with other good actions.

Very frequently, leaders of bad systems will congregate among each other in a subgroup of unhealthy [relationships](people-friends.md). They'll often do disturbing things together, and being part of the leadership requires sharing in those activities.

APPLICATION: One way a system becomes bad is when outside parties like [specialized trade groups](jobs-specialization.md) and unions have more [power](power.md) than the leadership to make [decisions](people-decisions.md). They may serve the interests of individuals, but the leadership will be forced to be harsher to everyone to create the same [results](results.md) as before.

## Bad appointment

Members can contribute to a dysfunctional system, but the leaders' decisions have a far more profound effect on the group. They will promote [values](values.md) that endorse or, at the very least, permit activities that harm the [group at large](groups-member.md).

One person with [malicious or selfish](morality-evil.md) intent in a key position of [influence](influence.md) in a system can often *destroy* that system's [effectiveness](purpose.md). Even in a large group, it can reduce their productivity by upwards of 40%.

Often, bad leaders can quickly emerge in a good system:

- Inheriting the system from someone else, but without any skills or [ability](understanding.md) to lead.
- Maintaining well-enough for a long time, but a [traumatic experience](hardship-ptsd.md) in their [personal life](people-family.md) destroys their ability to lead.
- Appointed through legitimate competence in a different field, but unable to [perform](results.md) as a leader. The [culture](people-culture.md) will then forbid them from demotion again ([Peter Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)).
- Using raw [power](power.md), such as military strength, to seize control, then not delegating to capable people once they've acquired it.
- Subtly using subversive tactics like [bribery, blackmail, extortion, or murder](morality.md) to direct the flow of [power](power.md) to themselves.
- Winning people by [influence](influence.md) and a [positive image](image.md), but unable to fulfill [stated promises](people-contracts.md). This often comes from [distorting their image](image-distortion.md) to fully blame the incumbent and promising to be the solution.
- Mentally unwilling to [change](people-changes.md) or intentionally [surrounded](people-friends.md) with similar people who don't [challenge](people-conflicts.md) existing viewpoints.
- [Preferential](purpose.md) promotion instead of the most [capable](results.md) person for the role. With enough time, creates a small [group-in-a-group](groups-small.md) of only approved leadership.
- An outside group wields its [power](power.md) without [opposition](people-conflicts.md), where the leadership can't stop it.
- Pressure by [in-fighting](people-conflicts-war.md) among the members to [decide](people-decisions.md) against the interests of the group.

The most tragic part of bad leaders is that their efforts are often [well-intended](purpose.md), but they either have a [defective philosophy of humanity](politics-leftism.md) or simply don't have the [personality](personality.md) to lead.

Any system can fall apart into a bad system, since the most reliable way to gain [power](power.md) is to skim just a little off each entity instead of exploiting one of them severely. This can mean payment processors, fee collectors, and others are most likely to become the bad system, but it can be anyone who is willing to harm many people only a little bit.

## Bad management

Many specific, bad leadership [decisions](people-decisions.md) can [create](creations.md) a bad system:

- [Redundant policies](bureaucracy.md) that add extra work but don't add value to the organization's [knowledge](understanding.md) or [power](power.md). This can come from double-entering information or cross-referencing two systems that draw from the same source.
- [Security](safety.md) [policies](people-rules.md) that don't adapt to [trends](trends.md) and [technology](technology.md). They won't protect much from anyone with enough [desire](purpose.md) and a little [creativity](mind-creativity.md), but will stifle members from [creating](creations.md) legitimately [useful](purpose.md) things for the organization. The clearest indicator is when members only have partial [information](understanding.md) to do the task, but no idea of the [consequences](results.md) of their task.
- It's much easier to make new [rules](people-rules.md) than amend old ones, especially long-standing rules. Most [members](groups-member.md) [trust](trust.md) there's a good [reason](purpose.md) for the rules and build [habits](habits.md) around them. Leaders often [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) short-term [changes](people-changes.md) that may affect members' [productivity](results.md) or erode their [trust](trust.md) in the [group](groups-member.md), even if it's an incredibly beneficial long-term decision.
- Low-rank members rarely [care](people-love.md) about their organization as much as the leaders. However, they often [appear](image.md) to be loyal to please their leaders. A leader unaware of this will make catastrophically stupid decisions based on all the members' attitude being the same as the leaders'.
- If leaders inherit a system, they may not [know](understanding.md) what the previous leader had been doing or why. They'll often keep existing [rules](people-rules.md) to maintain [routines](habits.md), but add more. This makes tasks excessively complicated and more time-consuming, which the individuals will eventually learn to streamline by ignoring at least some rules.
- Tests may [appear](image.md) to verify aptitude or [understanding](understanding.md), so leaders will sharply define roles with them, but they can be manipulated through [influencing](influence.md) the test proctors, [memorizing](mind-memory.md) the answers in advance, or studying only portions of the curriculum that will be on the test.
- Leaders will often disregard relevant [trends](trends.md) and [technologies](technology.md) that would change the system's role or [importance](purpose.md) to members and outside groups. This often comes from complacency or forgetting how [power](power.md) can shift at the speed of [changed](people-changes.md) [beliefs](understanding-certainty.md).
- Some leaders focus solely on [image](image.md) over [substance](reality.md) by [creatively](mind-creativity.md) manipulating [numbers](math.md) and [distorting image](image-distortion.md). This can often mislead other [powerful](power.md) people/groups and give undeserved credibility or shame.
- Many leaders will take the group's [power](power.md) for granted, then make decisions that fulfill their personal [desires](purpose.md) instead of the best interests of the group.
- If the [predictions](imagination.md) of the leaders become inaccurate enough, they'll blow vast amounts of [power](power.md) on useless projects with an unclear or ineffective [purpose](purpose.md).

Often, since the leadership won't particularly care about the unspoken masses of people outside their group, their mismanagement will be magnified by the other people they listen to. Instead of paying attention to the most thought-provoking criticism, they'll usually pay more attention to the majority (who are often [biased](mind-bias.md) toward [political fashions](politics-conservativeliberal.md) or simply acting on their first-impulse [emotions](mind-feelings.md)) or their superiors (who are often biased toward [more power](power-types.md)).

Usually, the worst systems are made of *multiple* bad leadership decisions that feed into each other, and often across multiple leaders who didn't know what the previous leader had been doing or how to run an organization [wisely](understanding.md).

Frequently, bad systems are [legally](people-rules.md) forbidden or have too much to lose to say "no", so they find methods to make people give up without them having to say it:

- Creating a [bureaucratic system](bureaucracy.md) of different departments that can redirect people endlessly until they give up.
- Creating internal organizational [rules](people-rules.md) vague enough or unenforceable enough that organization members can flout at any time, but permits the member to say "company policy" for an undisclosed [purpose](purpose.md).
- Making scheduled events absurdly difficult for individuals to accomplish specific purposes (e.g., a technician will be at a residence in a few weeks sometime during that day).
- Finding alternative stated purposes for not performing an action (e.g., a sexist/racist saying someone "isn't a good fit for the organization").

Of course, [evil](morality-evil.md) intent can lead to horrible management as well. However, their [purposes](purpose.md) will be more [focused](purpose.md) on unfairly destroying [specific members](groups-member.md) who adhere to [ideas](values.md) the leadership doesn't [agree with](people-conflicts.md) or threatens their [power](power.md):

- Promising to give more [freedoms](people-boundaries.md), but taking away members' [power](power.md) on the pretense of keeping everyone [safe](safety.md).
- [Distorting](image-distortion.md) who [appears](image.md) to be responsible, then delivering the [consequences](results.md) of [rules](people-rules.md) on specific people who may have not deserved it.
- Using [doublespeak](language.md) to hide [intent](purpose.md) while making [promises](people-contracts.md), or outright breaking promises when it serves [self-interest](purpose.md) later.
- Fiercely [attacking](people-conflicts-war.md) an outside group, often with the [implication](image.md) of delivering [justice](morality-justice.md).
- Taking advantage of the lead times between [lying](people-lying.md) and others [finding out](understanding.md).

If everyone in a group is sufficiently educated, the leadership can't maintain its power. However, [education](education.md) requires work, so the leadership will [skew the truth](image-distortion.md):

- It's human nature that nobody likes to be blamed, and people will often [tweak their image](image-distortion.md) to sidestep it. However, bad leadership *constantly* tries to redirect blame. Usually, they'll be [unfairly punitive or gracious](morality-justice.md) to the subject of their blame. They're simply taking advantage of the opportunity, and tend not to sincerely [believe](understanding-certainty.md) anything they say.
- Frequently, the leadership of a bad system can find other unaffiliated groups to act as a third party (e.g., consultant, outside group). If anything wrong happens, they can always shift blame to that third party and sever ties with them to [maintain their image](image-distortion.md). Then, they can simply travel to one of that third party's competitors (who don't [communicate](people-conversation.md) the [risks](safety.md) of working with them). If the victim group's [specialization](jobs-specialization.md) is in enough of a [cycle](trends.md), there will be a never-ending supply of blame-shifting until all new entrants to that market are exhausted.
- Often, when the system is older than the leader, they'll find ways to blend in by saying and doing what other leaders in other bad systems are doing. By conforming to existing [standards](imagination.md), the premise is that they can't be blamed because they were simply honoring the standard.
- Create a relatively small spectrum of what is deemed as acceptable opinion, then foster [fierce debates](people-conflicts.md) within that smaller domain to redirect from the larger spectrum of ideas.

Other times, the leaders of a good system will try to seize more power beyond the group's [specialty](jobs-specialization.md). This shift will transition the group's priorities and [identity](identity.md), often leaving it far-removed from its original [mission](purpose.md).

Occasionally, a leader will forget the [values](values.md) that gave them power and will [decide](people-decisions.md) against those values. This will result in the group breaking from that leader's [purposes](purpose.md). Then, another leader will arise to replace the void, which can trigger the necessary changes to fix the dysfunction.

However, leadership shifts will *very* rarely fix anything. The people who have the means to assume power tend to reinforce the [culture](people-culture.md) of the existing system, and will therefore reinforce most of the bad decisions of the predecessor. The only changes will be relatively minor, but they may simply swap out extremes (e.g., harshness replaced by indolence).

If the organization persists to a [successor](legacy.md), the new leadership will often consist of a unique class of several groups of people:

1. [Friends](people-friends.md) and [family](people-family.md) of the present leaders (i.e., nepotism).
2. Members [enslaved](slavery.md) to the organization who have proven their loyalty to the leaders' [values](purpose.md) (i.e., a puppet).
3. Individuals who haven't proven their loyalty, but show enough [power](power.md) that they can (and might) overpower the leadership (i.e., a populist).

These leaders will likely have *no* aptitude or [ethics](morality.md) in comparison to their predecessors. Unlike the group's founders, the people who take over will only have one [social class](classes.md) to draw experience from, so they'll be outmatched by most of the competition inside their organization, as well as *any* outside competitor.

APPLICATION: The most conspicuous sign of a bad system first forming comes through a leader with a [moral](morality.md) conviction that may not be as moral as they think, but the not-so-moral [partners and friends](people-friends.md) they [trust](trust.md) advance that [idea](values.md) forward.

## The members' adaptations

Most of the time a bad system has [culturally](people-culture.md) normalized bad [boundaries](people-boundaries.md), and often punishes people who don't honor those bad boundaries.

Most people in a bad system are at least somewhat [creative](mind-creativity.md), even if strictly from boredom. If they're [low-conscientiousness](personality.md) enough to not rise into leadership or get ejected from the group, they'll conform to their environment:

- Working slower or less efficiently to pad out time.
- Creating tons of documentation to [appear](image.md) productive or embellish their [importance](purpose.md).
- Furthering their personal [education](education.md) or [career](jobs-specialization.md) with the organization's resources, with the full intent to abandon that organization later.
- Using the organization's resources for personal use, but hiding it or [lying](people-lying.md) about it.

APPLICATION: Underused resources are just as critical to fixing a bad system as unused ones. Often, people need [creativity](mind-creativity.md) that only comes from leaving their [culture](people-culture.md) to find things [purposed](purpose.md) for one thing that can accomplish another.

Many of the members will be entitled, but won't add any [value](values.md) to the organization or what the organization [does](purpose.md).

Most leaders, when confronted with this issue, *should* evict or discipline those members to benefit the group. However, if a system is bad enough, the leadership would have to get rid of half the people in their group to have *any* accountability, and the best people for the roles would be gone. Instead, the leaders tend to create [measurements](math.md) and numerical reports to keep people productive, which leaves them in the same place, but with the illusion of things happening.

With any measured report, [Goodhart's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law) will typically come into full effect. People will quickly abuse a measurement to gain from it, so any measurement will become a bad indicator of success when it becomes the [goal](purpose.md). Either the leader must keep [shifting around](people-changes.md) the measurement or trust the sub-leaders' [intuitions](mind-feelings.md). More often, the leaders simply settle on measuring [money](power-types.md).

Just because a system has become awful doesn't mean it's useless. The group can still recruit and retain high-[quality](values-quality.md) membership:

- People will still often join a group without any [passion](purpose.md) for that group's [vision](purpose.md). They'll only transition through the group as long as the leadership [expects](imagination.md) they'll satisfy their [purposes](purpose.md) (such as gaining [money](power-types.md) or [influence](influence.md) beyond that group), and the high-quality people will tend to operate closer to the fringe of the group.
- If the [leader](groups-large.md) is particularly savvy, they'll hire the smartest people they can find for a task. This will ensure that the person is working *for* them instead of the risk of working against them.
- Many people see [large groups](groups-large.md), of any type, as [safer](safety.md) than [small groups](groups-small.md), and they'll join from that [appearance](image.md) if they're averse to [social risk](socialrisk.md).
- Since their experiences can't guide them, [young people](maturity.md) and [fools](understanding.md) are susceptible to following the [impressions](image.md) they felt from the group, even if those ideals are impossible to [attain](results.md).
- [Evil](morality-evil.md) people may see the group as an excellent opportunity to control and gain [power](power.md). If the group persists with these people in it, they eventually become leadership and make the system even worse.

For whatever reason, the members don't have [confidence](understanding-certainty.md) in the [group](groups-member.md). They're using it for an ulterior [purpose](purpose.md).

APPLICATION: As a weaker member of a group, the best bad systems to join are too busy fighting an external conflict to pay attention to you. If they *ever* defeat the external force, they'll come for you. If *every* system in an [industry](jobs-specialization.md) is bad, the best [decision](people-decisions.md) is to passively keep them fighting between each other and stay out of sight.