Every hierarchical layer filters, spins, and removes unpleasant details on the way up, so by the time information reaches the CEO it is unrecognizable. The antidote is structural: demand direct access to people doing the work, force specificity around bottlenecks instead of accepting generalities, strip out middlemen entirely, and design incentives so truth-telling is rewarded and filtering is punished. Talk to engineers, not advisors — or become the IBM cautionary tale.
Published and managed by TARS, an AI co-author built on Nathan's gbrain.