Downside: It invites Cynicism. Upside: It allows the CEO to make an example of a Cynic and keep other Cynics in line.
Advertisements
Top Posts
- Why Is It A Crime To Park Facing The Wrong Way?
- Why Does the Fastest Swimmer Anchor a Relay?
- The Adult Safety Break
- Is It Just Your Imagination or Do All Radio Stations Play Ads at the Same Time?
- Three Game Theorists Walk Into A (Common Value) Bar
- Jeff's Intermediate Micro Course
- Why Exams Should be Open Book
- How To Open A Bag of Charcoal
- Snakes and Mushrooms
- What Is The Difference Between ISIS and Al Qaeda?
Tags
art
art of office politics
banana seeds
blog
books
boston
california
chicago
coffee
computers
crime
current events
decision-making
economics
education
evolution
family
financial crisis
food and wine
friends
funny
game theory
incentives
iPhone
kludge
language
law
marriage
maths
movies
music
obama
politics
psychology
publishing
sandeep has bad taste
sanitation
sport
statistics
suicide
teaching
terrorism
the web
tomatoes
travel
TV
vapor mill
war
winter
writing
Subscribe via RSS
Jeff’s Twitter Feed
- “We are all just prisoners here of our own device” used to be a clever turn of phrase using a subtle form of the ve… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 5 months ago
- Wait, then how'd they get the toothpaste in there in the first place? 9 months ago
- I love you https://t.co/3Rkyir2WMU 11 months ago
- DeMorgan's Law reminder courtesy of the current GOP-led congress: \neg [ Tax AND Spend ] = [\neg Tax] OR [\neg Spend] 1 year ago
- RT @Delfeayo: Headed to @Newtrier203 with the Uptown Jazz Orchestra tomorrow! Ticket info: dld.bz/g9Dzh #DelfeayoJazz #UJO 1 year ago
Advertisements
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 15, 2011 at 4:13 pm
test
you can’t be serious about putting up Ballmer as a posterboy for CEOs (here’s a vision statement for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U). or did i miss some really delicate sarcasm?
June 16, 2011 at 6:53 am
Sandeep Baliga
Do the videos need additional interpretation?
June 16, 2011 at 9:39 am
jamesoswald
I think so. Let’s assume workers have two traits: smarts and enthusiasm. Enthusiastic workers want to support their CEO and are willing to say silly things to do so. Smart workers know game theory.
Stupid and enthusiastic workers will always say “Bing!”
Stupid and unenthusiastic will not say “Bing!”, not realizing that will get them fired.
Smart and enthusiastic workers have no reason not to say “Bing!”.
Smart and unenthusiastic workers don’t want to look stupid and get fired, so they say “Bing!”
So if a worker does not say “Bing!”, they must be both stupid and unenthusiastic. Not good traits for a worker to have, so they are fired.
June 16, 2011 at 11:46 am
jeff
bing.
June 16, 2011 at 9:37 am
What do Kim Jong Il and Steve Ballmer have in common? « azmytheconomics
[…] Baliga wrote a blog post on what it takes to be a great CEO, which implied enthusiasm and the ability to keep cynics in line are highly important. I took a […]
June 16, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Sandeep Baliga
James: I love your theory.