Inspired By the Peter Principle: the Peter Pinnacle 80
bfwebster writes "Michael Swaine — long-time, well-known and very prolific author/editor in the programming and personal computing worlds — has just devised a new twist on the Peter Principle: the Peter Pinnacle, 'meaning to get promoted so high and to be so unqualified for your job that the company tells you that you can name your price just to go away.' I'm sure the timing of the neologism is just a coincidence."
Re: (Score:2)
I can't imagine where you got the idea that the word "cosmonaut" could possibly fit there. If you were to clean out your ears and listen, you'd see that the line is, "you're a pal and a confidant," which actually makes sense, unlike your garbled version.
Re: (Score:2)
A fine example of the Peter Principle in action. ;)
An astute lack of information (Score:5, Informative)
The article has no more information than the above summary, does not use any specific examples which illustrate the case, and does not have any links to any further information whatsoever.
If the author doesn't care enough about it to actually take the time to explain in detail what he is really talking about, why should anyone care enough about his opinion to listen?
Sorry for how hostile this post sounds... I'm not angry or anything, just mildly disappointed. An actual paper describing this phenomenon could have been an interesting read, if there had actually been one.
Re:An astute lack of information (Score:4, Funny)
Jokes on you. You actually read an article timothy approved. You kind of deserved to be trolled at this point.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Actually the new principle that reflects actual reality should be the Corporate Psychopath Principle "The ability to be promoted up to the level where you can continue to blame others for your mistakes whilst taking all the credit for their successes" or the Steve Jobs principle. When you reach you peak you cripple your company whilst scamming a golden parachute for yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
I've got to agree. Maybe I should write a post asking whether I've just invented the term "bamfuder quibblewert" then tweet several times about how I've invented a new term and link to the post, then submit the whole mess to slashdot.
If it gains any traction I'll figure out what the hell a bamfuder quibblewert is.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Sounds like Star Wars chatter to me.
Re: (Score:1)
A quibblewert is wat happens when you have to switch between QWERTY (US), QWERTY (UK), QWERTY (Dutch), AZERTY (Belgian), AZERTY (French) and QWERTZU keyboards several times a day. Many folks in Brussels get completely bamfuder (or worse!) from that.
Tired... (Score:4, Insightful)
Getting sick of the multiple Ballmer stories with the same old tired discussions... this is what, the 10th story on the same thing?
Re:Tired... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe we should just pay the slashdot editors to go away.
Re: (Score:3)
The best part is that this isn't even a story. The linked post, in its entirety, is as follows:
I asked this on Facebook:
"Google would know and I'm afraid to ask her because she always says no, but did I just invent the term 'Peter Pinnacle?'"
Facebook friends assured me that I deserve the neologistic credit, whatever credit it might deserve, although there is apparently at least one person whose name is Peter Pinnacle. Sheesh.
So what does it mean?
It's a logical extension of the Peter Principle, meaning to get promoted so high and to be so unqualified for your job that the company tells you that you can name your price just to go away.
That's it. Nothing else. It's a blurb on a blog, not a story. This is an awesome example of /. editors not even bothering to click on a submission link before posting it to the home page.
Re: (Score:2)
This is a right fine example of the slashdot editors going the extra mile and setting before us a shiny that has no story behind it but it is a bright bauble isn't it? You know that it's deserving of slashdot exposure.
Now for a serious question: After someone like Ballmer has achieved the Peter Pinnacle, that obviously means he'll never be able to get it up that high again. But does it mean that he's completely petered out? Anyone care to take a guess?
Re: (Score:3)
He'll spend the rest of his life serving on the boards of various corporations.
Just a new twist on the old... (Score:1)
Re:Just a new twist on the old... (Score:4, Insightful)
...promoted to his/her level of incompetence...
What did Timothy do before he was promoted to Slashdot editor?
Fiorina (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure the timing of the neologism is just a coincidence.
Back in 2005, Carly Fiorina took $21 million to walk away from HP: http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/09/technology/hp_fiorina/ [cnn.com]
Mark Hurd (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, is Hurd really a prime-time player?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurd [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
not a fortune to the corporation, just a small bit of change. Large corporations rule your world, they have your politicians in their pocket. whining will solve nothing,
Re: (Score:1)
If I had to guess, I'd say in their contracts.
Re: (Score:2)
And what makes the boards who are so happy to pinch every penny on other employment contracts and jump through so many hoops to renege on pensions and other benefits after the fact for the rank and file so willing to sign Santa Claus contracts with CEOs who have already washed out of their first (several) CEO positions?
Re: (Score:2)
And what makes the boards who are so happy to pinch every penny on other employment contracts and jump through so many hoops to renege on pensions and other benefits after the fact for the rank and file so willing to sign Santa Claus contracts with CEOs who have already washed out of their first (several) CEO positions?
Look up the board of directors for any company. In most cases it is made up almost entirely of people who are CEOs or retired CEOs of other companies. They are all members of the same club, aka, " I'll sit on your board and pay you millions while you sit on my board and pay me millions."
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. If they weren't in the nearly untouchable by law class, the lot of it would probably found to be a conspiracy for fraud in the courts.
Re: (Score:2)
courts presided over by judges who were former corporate lawyers....hmmmmmm
Re: (Score:2)
And is generally called a "golden parachute" clause.
Re: (Score:2)
Because we are the serfs and they are the masters.
Re: (Score:2)
they rule, you are ruled. remember the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules
Re: (Score:2)
so what? that's chump change to a large corporation, a rounding error in the revenue stream they deal with.
Re: (Score:3)
Hmm. . . I suspect that the auditors would not consider an embezzlement of $21,000,000 to be a rounding error.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference between embezzlement and severance pay is in just a few signatures of company's officers.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not what they say when it's time to pay out the same amount to retired workers.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, and all of them taken together don't add up to one golden parachute. Disgusting but true.
HP went nuts (Score:5, Interesting)
I was on the phone with HP Premier Support when the Fiorina departure news hit their office. I almost couldn't finish the call because of the chaos that erupted on the other end. The entire office was cheering, crying with joy, shouting in celebration...and someone in the background started singing at the top of his voice "Ding, dong, the witch is dead!"
I am not kidding.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever read (Score:5, Insightful)
Regarding Kings (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
He should know. He was the man who assassinated ol' George so that America could become an independent nation. We wouldn't have managed without that final act of murderous treason.
Of course the Brits covered it up by using a body double and pretending like it never happened.
Let's call it what it is... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
This is Self-Preventing (Score:3, Interesting)
Relentless self promotion (Score:5, Interesting)
But there are many awesome CEOs who are not a household name and avoid publicity as a waste of time. They focus their energies on running their companies. Whereas the people who relentlessly self promote have to do two seriously broken things. One is to neglect what they are supposed to be doing, and the second is that they often have to take credit for others' work. Technically there is a third quasi-valid reason to self promote and that is your products suck and you try to sell them through pure con-artistry.
Even years ago I knew a bunch of pilots in training. Oddly enough it is difficult to tell a great pilot; it is only easy to detect the bad ones through their misfortunes. Thus being a blow-hard was a fairly effective method to having people hire you. Most of the better blowhards had shocking levels of success as compared to the more diligent pilots who just focused on their training and hours.
Where these blowhards succeed is that they are quite capable of launching their careers far beyond what a critical look at their skills and experience would normally justify. Then reality will kick in as they start to make a mess of things. At that point the "Peter Pinnacle" definitely kicks in.
So where I would say the Peter Principle and the Peter Pinnacle differ is that under the Peter Principle people get promoted (typically one level above competence) until they fail. Whereas under the Peter Pinnacle people get promoted until they run out of hot air (which could be dozens of levels beyond competence).
The worst part is that people who will reach the highest heights of the Peter Pinnacle were probably terrible from day one and realized that bluster, scheming, and politicking were the only ways they would survive at any level. Programmers who couldn't program, then couldn't manage, then couldn't run a department, then couldn't run a company. But at each level they made sure that things were structured so that they could take credit for successes that were about to happen, and make sure others were put in place to take the blame for their messes. "I'm glad that I took over from Bob when I did. I was able to turn defeat into victory." and six months later "I left that department a well oiled machine, I misplaced my trust in Sue to be able to step into my shoes."
Anti-Peter Principle (Score:4, Interesting)
Man he must be old (Score:3)
There are 5 articles from December 1945 on his blog.
Ballmer (Score:2)
'Nuff said.
Dilbert Principle (Score:3)
This is just the culmination of the Dilbert Principle [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. The Peter Principle is just a thought experiement: the natural result if we lived in a world where promotions are handed out purely based on competence at the existing job.
The Dilbert Principle, on the other hand, is an actual theory put forth to explain obseved behavior in the real world.
Reminder:
I wrote The Dilbert Principle around the concept that in many cases the least competent, least smart people are promoted, simply because they’re the ones you don't want doing actual work. You want them ordering the doughnuts and yelling at people for not doing their assignments—you know, the easy work. Your heart surgeons and your computer programmers—your smart people—aren’t in management. That principle was literally happening everywhere.
So while the former aspires to be philosophy (an exercise in logic), the latter aspires to be a scientific theory.
With all these 'Peter' theories .... (Score:2)
Insert Obligatory ... (Score:2)
Insert Obligatory Carly Fiorina Joke...
I'd provide a detailed comment but... (Score:2)
OMG, such OLD news. (Score:1)
Plus, this guy invented, or twisted, NOTHING.
The concept has been known for years and is called "rising to your greatest level of incompetency". You get promoted so much that you leave your sphere of knowledge.