To add to that, hierarchy is absolutely necessary for any large scale organization. Math simply does not work in favor of flat organization because you end up with increasing communication overhead that scales linearly with the size of organization. The more people you have involved, the more difficult it becomes to make a decision.
Another problem is that each individual can only have so much knowledge in their heads. It’s impossible to make meaningful decisions on subjects you’re not versed in, making your contribution on topics outside your area of expertise into noise. Hence, why effective organization requires creating groups of people who focus on specific subjects, and then creating interfaces between them that abstract over the internal details and focus on the functional aspects. And that naturally leads to the need for hierarchical organization.
Finally, there’s a question of robustness. Hierarchies allow creating independent units that can compose together to build larger structures. Hierarchy is the structure that makes self organization and resilience possible at scale. A system needs to be resilient to shocks and able to adapt on its own. But if every single part is directly connected to every other part, any change causes chaos. As I noted above, the system ends up being overwhelmed with information.
Organizing the system into nested subsystems creates cells that talk to each other to do their job. They don’t need to know the internal processes of other cells, and act as stable subassemblies. Each level can self-organize and maintain resilience within its own domain because it’s not bogged down by what’s happening elsewhere.
And that’s how hierarchical structures reduce noise and delay within the system. Feedback loops needed for learning and adaptation can independently evolve within each subsystem, and a problem in one area doesn’t immediately crash the overarching system. Here, the hierarchy ends up playing the role of a shock absorber, localizing issues so the whole structure doesn’t fail.
I think a good way to look at hierarchies as connective tissue between components of large systems. The central control exists for coordination toward a larger goal as opposed to micromanagement. Hierarchy isn’t about top down command as anarchists like to frame it. The purpose of the structure is to create the organized spaces where bottom up resilience and adaptation can actually thrive.
Very well said! The purpose of hierarchy in terms of how useful it is to us in satisfying the needs of all is directly connected to its necessity and efficiency when it comes to larger scales. It isn’t just top-down or bottom-up, but both.
To add to that, hierarchy is absolutely necessary for any large scale organization. Math simply does not work in favor of flat organization because you end up with increasing communication overhead that scales linearly with the size of organization. The more people you have involved, the more difficult it becomes to make a decision.
Another problem is that each individual can only have so much knowledge in their heads. It’s impossible to make meaningful decisions on subjects you’re not versed in, making your contribution on topics outside your area of expertise into noise. Hence, why effective organization requires creating groups of people who focus on specific subjects, and then creating interfaces between them that abstract over the internal details and focus on the functional aspects. And that naturally leads to the need for hierarchical organization.
Finally, there’s a question of robustness. Hierarchies allow creating independent units that can compose together to build larger structures. Hierarchy is the structure that makes self organization and resilience possible at scale. A system needs to be resilient to shocks and able to adapt on its own. But if every single part is directly connected to every other part, any change causes chaos. As I noted above, the system ends up being overwhelmed with information.
Organizing the system into nested subsystems creates cells that talk to each other to do their job. They don’t need to know the internal processes of other cells, and act as stable subassemblies. Each level can self-organize and maintain resilience within its own domain because it’s not bogged down by what’s happening elsewhere.
And that’s how hierarchical structures reduce noise and delay within the system. Feedback loops needed for learning and adaptation can independently evolve within each subsystem, and a problem in one area doesn’t immediately crash the overarching system. Here, the hierarchy ends up playing the role of a shock absorber, localizing issues so the whole structure doesn’t fail.
I think a good way to look at hierarchies as connective tissue between components of large systems. The central control exists for coordination toward a larger goal as opposed to micromanagement. Hierarchy isn’t about top down command as anarchists like to frame it. The purpose of the structure is to create the organized spaces where bottom up resilience and adaptation can actually thrive.
Very well said! The purpose of hierarchy in terms of how useful it is to us in satisfying the needs of all is directly connected to its necessity and efficiency when it comes to larger scales. It isn’t just top-down or bottom-up, but both.
exactly!