The Committee: Where Good Ideas Go to Die Slowly

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some business concepts age poorly, yet keep getting sold with the same enthusiasm a snake oil peddler uses to fleece unsuspecting customers.

One of those concepts is “everyone decides together” — that corporate liturgy where the apparent absence of hierarchy automatically equals collective intelligence, organizational maturity, and workplace happiness.

Sounds wonderful.

You’re almost tempted to add piano music, shots of people smiling in a glass-walled conference room, and a deep voice talking about “active listening,” “distributed leadership,” and “collaborative ecosystems.”

Toxic metrics: story points, commits, and other creative ways to fool yourself

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are many ways to wreck a development team.

You can force them to use a framework nobody asked for, make them estimate every last comma in a four-hour meeting, or —my personal favorite— slap the wrong metrics on them and call it “data-driven management.” It sounds polished, plays great in a slide deck, and the damage takes just long enough to show up that whoever’s responsible has already been promoted.

Team Management on I am Lino

The Committee: Where Good Ideas Go to Die Slowly

Toxic metrics: story points, commits, and other creative ways to fool yourself