From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,HTML_MESSAGE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 24683 invoked from network); 1 Jan 2023 01:03:35 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 1 Jan 2023 01:03:35 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 58FDA4240E; Sun, 1 Jan 2023 11:03:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-vk1-f171.google.com (mail-vk1-f171.google.com [209.85.221.171]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F2BD241C73 for ; Sun, 1 Jan 2023 11:03:23 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-vk1-f171.google.com with SMTP id g65so8438537vkh.8 for ; Sat, 31 Dec 2022 17:03:23 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=KqhTel2yf6qUpUMXXTiNo1EEis/tmdZTW5Ja1074iYE=; b=ZPc8yKf3mZxx9k4vjEzbNv74f/RGPCmHQE5G2Ty7lXF26ia1WJ2UMShM+EqlIC88UP 8CGCj2AGorkdp2SnRUvTj+wXyx1bZ0LObNUBNc529jn5osWUCArg3MWTNDd68bM3lZRC 4q6/a01mhQx0jIONf/jHJA+kf+cO1hRUY78vdxVPRYXDJl7TJov1edW701uTQ5uKEzaZ CO1ycrvhekEu52d3HnsD+h/zlgs5BsFgkXBjHTRy1QnWfomADfkahWXkdspHar1nc8z6 I3tByZAtyYC8NwYyYPaZvY63GV64bIKfgwIDjtDnX4ERdWxAFcvPTyVFCH+knZn/Hxjc hAgA== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :reply-to; bh=KqhTel2yf6qUpUMXXTiNo1EEis/tmdZTW5Ja1074iYE=; b=vmCeVgQna3meQyGaApIsS+Q46NFtPrc2CiOgPL60tviiiIc6oGCAC7Tv9He2vPfZDd d+D8iGHTtGosYl+9ms6khz0NqPiPDH7nD7b+AvMBoW0WPTyk4ttXWIXs4GaltCj2J994 M36WedPaPArVb07UNirBYU6U721NMyh6hyQQO9FfThH5dFtPoDh/qnNdHLlyopgLDcHU V+Hle5jt7K0P1yfxpBdDaXldSoH9Jyi9y7+FzXqUoied5ldU7Mg0WUsJ8edvZzZb6YBK BTOs0+RVBT+BWfQnw89lMEIGUH/wyBM2QMAiyK4txZImNbqn8eVm76WcvYjTF5rncrZn suVg== X-Gm-Message-State: AFqh2krS7yFn1ObRXh/uqsSvhn8tzW8185noieUZzOGP16WCzhgn0Bhv R8SSOKaE4ccmS0brD6vURuAhvfUbU1nrhf2+oX/9suPP X-Google-Smtp-Source: AMrXdXtwwVufT4jvlabz4v9reVSS5vi1Yde7QBqiD5SVcBQOXEwuyzlkV8E1ZbNo+8oC96rKMAeadwZy8ThSf8WLd1w= X-Received: by 2002:ac5:c5c1:0:b0:3d5:b7b6:243f with SMTP id g1-20020ac5c5c1000000b003d5b7b6243fmr161016vkl.27.1672534942942; Sat, 31 Dec 2022 17:02:22 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <335F89A9-30C2-41A2-8E84-C2D761746634@planet.nl> In-Reply-To: From: Rob Pike Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2023 12:02:12 +1100 Message-ID: To: Dave Horsfall Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000260b8905f1296336" Message-ID-Hash: F2C5ENOGP6RUFMVPG7IJLKQDTQH5PLDO X-Message-ID-Hash: F2C5ENOGP6RUFMVPG7IJLKQDTQH5PLDO X-MailFrom: robpike@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Porting the SysIII kernel: boot, config & device drivers List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: --000000000000260b8905f1296336 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" A theory about organizations, inspired by OpenBoot. As a company grows, which capitalism says it must, jobs change from something someone needs to do from time to time, to something a person is hired to do, to something a whole organization does. There are countless examples, but OpenBoot serves as an illustration. Like some others on this list, I'm sure, I've written a number of boot ROMs over the years, in the service of a project for which a bootable system was a prerequisite. Not hard, a day or two's work followed by some maintenance. So when I first saw a major software project in the form of a boot ROM, which may well have been my first taste of OpenBoot (it was a Sun thing, I'm pretty sure) I was bemused. But over time I've come to understand. As Sun grew (if I have the wrong company, I apologize, but it's endemic in any industry, and if I have the details of OpenBoot wrong, ditto), for various reasons the maintenance of the boot ROM became more time consuming, until eventually it became someone's full job, and then the boot ROM department's job. But allocating people's time to tasks is an inexact process, plus once one's full focus becomes boot ROMs, one's head fills with ideas. If one works on boot ROMs, every problem one thinks about becomes one the boot ROM can solve or at least help. (This particular disease is a major infection for compiler teams.) And so the boot ROM grows and grows and grows, accumulating features that are fun for the team to work on, but in the high-altitude view not really worth it. As I said, though, it's really about allocating people's time. "I have nothing to do at the moment, why don't I put a FORTH interpreter into the boot ROM? And then I'll make it an industry standard. Anyway it's my job to do boot ROMs so what else should I do now?" But you wouldn't have done that if the boot ROM stayed at the level of the stack it should have, doing the minimum necessary to get the operating system up and running to let it do the heavy lifting. I never needed a FORTH interpreter in my boot ROM. Maybe some thought they did but did they really? And was it the right use of resources to put it there? This is what happens in organizations. Employee performance evaluation at Google followed this same arc until the need to keep the organization responsible busy generated a process that placed a staggeringly expensive tax on the rest of the company, to the point that a secondary tax was paid in trying to figure out how to deal with the primary tax. This then is my theory of capitalism: Things grow until they break into pieces that must each be fed individually, triggering more growth that eventually become tumors that sap the strength of the organization. Small companies can do well because they haven't grown big enough yet to face this problem. Not an original observation, but perhaps no one has used OpenBoot as its exemplar before. Happy New Year. -rob But --000000000000260b8905f1296336 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
A theory about organizations, inspired by OpenBo= ot.

As a company grows, which capitalism says it must, jobs change from so= mething someone needs to do from time to time, to something a person is hir= ed to do, to something a whole organization does. There are countless examp= les, but OpenBoot serves as an illustration. Like some others on this list,= I'm sure, I've written a number of boot ROMs over the years, in th= e service of a project for which a bootable system was a prerequisite. Not = hard, a day or two's work followed by some maintenance. So when I first= saw a major software project in the form of a boot ROM, which may well hav= e been my first taste of OpenBoot (it was a Sun thing, I'm pretty sure)= I was bemused.

But over time I've come to understand. As Sun grew (if= I have the wrong company, I apologize, but it's endemic in any industr= y, and if I have the details of OpenBoot wrong, ditto), for various reasons= the maintenance of the boot ROM became more time consuming, until eventual= ly it became someone's full job, and then the boot ROM department's= job. But allocating people's time to tasks is an inexact process, plus= once one's full focus becomes boot ROMs, one's head fills with ide= as. If one works on boot ROMs, every problem one thinks about becomes one t= he boot ROM can solve or at least help. (This particular disease is a major= infection for compiler teams.) And so the boot ROM grows and grows and gro= ws, accumulating features that are fun for the team to work on, but in the = high-altitude view not really worth it. As I said, though, it's really = about allocating people's time. "I have nothing to do at the momen= t, why don't I put a FORTH interpreter into the boot ROM? And then I= 9;ll make it an industry standard. Anyway it's my job to do boot ROMs s= o what else should I do now?" But you wouldn't have done that if t= he boot ROM stayed at the level of the stack it should have, doing the mini= mum necessary to get the operating system up and running to let it do the h= eavy lifting. I never needed a FORTH interpreter in my boot ROM. Maybe some= thought they did but did they really? And was it the right use of resource= s to put it there?

This is what happens in organizations. Employee perform= ance evaluation at Google followed this same arc until the need to keep the= organization responsible busy generated a process that placed a staggering= ly expensive tax on the rest of the company, to the point that a secondary = tax was paid in trying to figure out how to deal with the primary tax.

Thi= s then is my theory of capitalism: Things grow until they break into pieces= that must each be fed individually, triggering more growth that eventually= become tumors that sap the strength of the organization. Small companies c= an do well because they haven't grown big enough yet to face this probl= em. Not an original observation, but perhaps no one has used OpenBoot as it= s exemplar before.

Happy New Year.

-rob


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