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> attribute the officer's behavior to constantly being surrounded by violence. If everyday, most people around you are violent unreasonable delinquents that want to hurt you, then you start developing personality characteristics to compensate and survive that environment

As I get older I wonder if there are certain jobs that everyone in society should cycle though, because they can be soul-crushing to do them long term.




I find it interesting that the Ancient Greeks thought that "decision-maker" was one of these jobs. Their lottery-based election system wasn't intended to be representative of the whims of the people, but rather to protect their decision-makers from the inevitable "moral fatigue" that comes with being made to choose with no clear best option, while being lobbied at by groups that are willing to pay you to say this or that option is best.

I wonder about this in the modern day: if everyone who ran a country was made to step down before their idealism was shattered--and if they didn't have to play politics to get there in the first place[1]--what kind of structures and rules would result?

Or: what would a software company be like if every "journeyman"-level team member took rotation as the team's manager, and knew that whatever pain they put on the shoulders of others, those others would inevitably get their turn to be in charge?

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[1] I think the "not having to play politics to get there" bit might actually be what the neoreactionaries are talking about when they say monarchies work better that democracies: inheriting the throne by divine right means you don't have to lose your faith in humanity to get there. The Greek lottery system is basically the same thing, but with an artificial "line of succession" controlled by time rather than death.


I've wondered the same! But often in an organizational context. One thing I love is that at Method, Inc., everyone rotates through the receptionist position.

I feel like we're so focused on outsourcing "menial" tasks when doing them can teach us a lot about workplanning and efficiency (which some people could certainly use), and more importantly about ownership (the Millennial generation, myself included, tends to look for handouts. Enter apps to do everything for you).


This is exactly why we have a release engineering rotation at our company.




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