By committee?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

By committee?

Scandinavians are very much a consensus-driven people. They discuss a lot. Managers are not supposed to impose their will but rather encourage consensus. What an awful place. Their companies must be a joke, their societies a shambles; because we all know that anything that involves -- snigger, snigger -- a committee must result in total stupidity.

Except that they're not of course. Scandinavian societies are the most healthy, wealthy, best educated and most equal on earth. Are they perfect? Of course not. Because there is no such thing as perfection, just an endless work in progress.

It is an article of almost religious faith that committees make bad decisions while individuals make brilliant ones. The fawning deification of Steve Jobs left the distinct impression that Apple would implode the day after he died.

I often read TIME magazine and that means reading about the best athlete in the world, the best cook in the world, the one man who will save Europe, etc. etc. The European Union -- the ultimate example of committees and consensus -- is the butt of all jokes right now. Let me, as a citizen of Europe, just say that I really like and am proud of the European Union. Long may it be committee- and consensus-driven.

What caused the global financial mess in which we find ourselves? Many, many things, but certainly a major contributor was smartest-boy-in-the-room syndrome. Letting testosterone drunk, somewhat psychotic young men rule the world of finance with their complex financial gambling is a great example of individual brilliance at play.