Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Sushan]

This topic is about the December 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity by Christian Espinosa

I used to work with a really smart guy named Doug, and I noticed he tended to hire only people who were not an intellectual threat to him. As a result, his team continued to downgrade with each new hire, and consequently, his results suffered. When I hired a CTO over Doug, it was the beginning of the end. Doug’s insecurities took over because he saw the CTO as a threat. We were in business to help people secure highly sensitive data, but Doug was more concerned about someone in the company knowing more about cybersecurity than he did. However, Doug couldn’t take it, and he didn’t last long at the company after that.

(Location 244 - Kindle version)

Managers are required to be smart, and it is better if they are smarter than the members of their team. But instead or learning and acquiring new skills for themselves to enhance their smartness, seemingly these managers tend to hire less skilled people compared to them. The author suggests that this 'ego-driven' action drives the companies towards low results. What do you think about this issue? Is it really an issue related to the managers' egos, or is there something else to be discussed with regard to this matter?

[LuckyR]

This topic is about the December 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity by Christian Espinosa

I used to work with a really smart guy named Doug, and I noticed he tended to hire only people who were not an intellectual threat to him. As a result, his team continued to downgrade with each new hire, and consequently, his results suffered. When I hired a CTO over Doug, it was the beginning of the end. Doug’s insecurities took over because he saw the CTO as a threat. We were in business to help people secure highly sensitive data, but Doug was more concerned about someone in the company knowing more about cybersecurity than he did. However, Doug couldn’t take it, and he didn’t last long at the company after that.

(Location 244 - Kindle version)

Managers are required to be smart, and it is better if they are smarter than the members of their team. But instead or learning and acquiring new skills for themselves to enhance their smartness, seemingly these managers tend to hire less skilled people compared to them. The author suggests that this 'ego-driven' action drives the companies towards low results. What do you think about this issue? Is it really an issue related to the managers' egos, or is there something else to be discussed with regard to this matter?

It depends on what you mean by "these managers". If you mean managerd who are not smarter than their team, I agree that would be a tendancy. If you mean all managers, I would disagree, it's generally those who fear (either rightly or wrongly) that they are not equipped to lead their team, thus they push the team down so they are relatively ahead of them.

[Sushan]

This topic is about the December 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity by Christian Espinosa

I used to work with a really smart guy named Doug, and I noticed he tended to hire only people who were not an intellectual threat to him. As a result, his team continued to downgrade with each new hire, and consequently, his results suffered. When I hired a CTO over Doug, it was the beginning of the end. Doug’s insecurities took over because he saw the CTO as a threat. We were in business to help people secure highly sensitive data, but Doug was more concerned about someone in the company knowing more about cybersecurity than he did. However, Doug couldn’t take it, and he didn’t last long at the company after that.

(Location 244 - Kindle version)

Managers are required to be smart, and it is better if they are smarter than the members of their team. But instead or learning and acquiring new skills for themselves to enhance their smartness, seemingly these managers tend to hire less skilled people compared to them. The author suggests that this 'ego-driven' action drives the companies towards low results. What do you think about this issue? Is it really an issue related to the managers' egos, or is there something else to be discussed with regard to this matter?

It depends on what you mean by "these managers". If you mean managerd who are not smarter than their team, I agree that would be a tendancy. If you mean all managers, I would disagree, it's generally those who fear (either rightly or wrongly) that they are not equipped to lead their team, thus they push the team down so they are relatively ahead of them.

I think smartness can be cunning at times. Maybe this does not apply to all managers. But I think the applicable amount is not a meager number as well. Being smart and being confident are two different things. At the same time, being smarter will not make someone superior to a one in a top position in the hierarchy as that is how hierarchies work.