The High-Res Society

December 2008

For nearly all of history the success of a society was proportionate
to its ability to assemble large and disciplined organizations.
Those who bet on economies of scale generally won, which meant the
largest organizations were the most successful ones.

Things have already changed so much that this is hard for us to
believe, but till just a few decades ago the largest organizations
tended to be the most progressive. An ambitious kid graduating
from college in 1960 wanted to work in the huge, gleaming offices
of Ford, or General Electric, or NASA. Small meant small-time.
Small in 1960 didn't mean a cool little startup. It meant uncle
Sid's shoe store.

When I grew up in the 1970s, the idea of the "corporate ladder" was
still very much alive. The standard plan was to try to get into a
good college, from which one would be drafted into some organization
and then rise to positions of gradually increasing responsibility.
The more ambitious merely hoped to climb the same ladder faster.
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