this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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I mean no disrespect to Carl, but he has a very generous take on how we got here. I'm sure it's happened that way somewhere, but how common is it really? I'm more inclined to believe people are more easily suckered by confident incompetence than they like to believe.
In 2003-2005 (when I first read those sentiments from Carl) I was working at a 1000 employee corporation valued at $1B market cap which functioned EXACTLY like that. I don't see it much in smaller companies, but in the large ones - yeah, I see it a lot. Come to think of it, the first small company I worked at had a guy who worked like that, but it only showed up around layoff time. He'd hire smart people, but keep the "safely dumb" ones and try to get rid of those who might be a threat to him. Luckily he was 3rd tier, VP, beneath a President and CEO who vetoed most of his targeted dismissals. He eventually was invited to leave and chose to continue his career as a college professor, rated worst on campus for terrorizing his students.
I've worked for quite a few major companies now, and the one thing that always gets me is the top brass always think they have magical intuition about people. That's how they justify it, both to themselves and to others based on what I see. The ones they're promoting are the ones they think are just smart enough to keep the wheels running. What they actually are are just straight up idiots who are very good at taking credit, and deflecting blame, and have no other notable talent. And then they just keep failing upward, leaving a wake of failure that is always someone else's fault or "valuable lessons" that didn't have to be learned the hard way if they were actually capable of thinking critically.
These people don't "Fake it 'till they make it" they just fake it, and keep faking it, because they have no idea what they're doing, but they're a much more successful predator than their peers as they cannibalize the company from within. And then these parasites make it to the boardroom and any chance to slow them down vanishes. I've seen it play out exactly like that a dozen times, at promising startups, and venerable old-guard corporations, Fortune 500s and corner stores.
I spent a bit of time with a retired CEO who oversaw a huge decade of growth in his company. 5 years post retirement he still knew a lot of the workers at all levels by name, was very well liked by everyone we met. He had a few observations about his success:
I didn't do anything magical, I was just in the right place at the right time and I didn't screw it up too badly. I have heard similar sentiments from investors who made it big during the .com bubble.
My biggest challenge was in hiring people. In a given year, if 50% of my hires didn't actively make things worse, that was a good year.
Re: And then these parasites make it to the boardroom and any chance to slow them down vanishes.
What I have seen of board room denizens is: they are personally wealthy and well connected. They exist mostly to provide "warm introductions" for relationships that may make themselves richer. They retain their seats through their personal wealth/power and the connections it brings, and the company retains them by providing them something they value - either monetary or powerful connections.
Being on the board isn't what makes them unstoppable. Being in control of F.U. money x10 is what makes them unstoppable.