Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
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Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#2I'd buy it. It seems like many of the problems we are having in society right now, and the challenges we are facing are results of biggness more than anything.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#3Wouldn't be surprised if this is true also for education. It's bizarre to me that we send children off to these huge warehouse size schools with over 1000 other kids, looked over by a small number of unrelated adults, and expect odd social problems to not arise.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#4Likely because humans have evolved to be able to know, remember and relate with ~150 people. Anything larger than that, requires organization and representation.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#5A startup I’ve watched closely grew to 160 and it’s still unclear they will actually survive this. Early employees are used to the old, startup-y way of doing things, but that’s no longer feasible.
I think there are actually many such points at which teams/companies change significantly. Going from 2 to 3, or 4 to 5 people can feel like a paradigm shift. Team communication often becomes too complex once the team grows beyond 8. I have seen clique formation starting at 5 people (in a band, but that probably doesn’t matter much), but less so in groups of 4.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#6Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#7This is probably true though size is hardly binary. A 10K person company is also a lot different from a 1K person company.
As companies grow there has to be more process and ICs are further and further from senior management.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#8Wouldn't be surprised if this is true also for education. It's bizarre to me that we send children off to these huge warehouse size schools with over 1000 other kids, looked over by a small number of unrelated adults, and expect odd social problems to not arise.
My high school (this was the 1980s) had 4,000 students. In retrospect I'm surprised there weren't more social problems. A lot of the students did come from a similar socio-economic background (upper-middle class to very very wealthy families), perhaps that explains it.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#9Anecdotal but the first two companies I worked at both grew from around 70 when I joined to around 200 when I left them, and in both cases I attested the very thing this article is observing. Influential and capable people became disengaged and frustrated because they could not move things forward by force of will anymore, and morale dropped overall among everyone.
Re: Something weird happens to companies when they hit 150 people (2017)
#10Wouldn't be surprised if this is true also for education. It's bizarre to me that we send children off to these huge warehouse size schools with over 1000 other kids, looked over by a small number of unrelated adults, and expect odd social problems to not arise.
Are all 1000 all together or is it broken down by age/grade, then classroom and such? How about role of parenting?