The new economics
by W. Edwards Deming · first published 1994
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Argues for systems thinking and statistical understanding in management, drawing on Deming's System of Profound Knowledge; valued for its rigorous, practical case against blaming individuals for process problems.
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I've read and enjoyed a bit by Edwards Deming recently, specifically Out of the Crisis and The New Economics.
on “The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read” ↗Either The New Economics or Out of the Crisis or both, by Deming. I could recommend twenty more books that I think are essential to be a good leader (in various areas like ownership, communication, continuous improvement, planning,…
on “How I operated as a Staff engineer at Heroku (2020)” ↗…top 20, grouped them into themes, and then ranked the themes based on how important I think they are. 1. Deming is the primary writer of the type of management we need to be competitive: Deming, The New Economics & Out of the Crisis. 2. There is a wide variety of ways for humans to organise. Nobody is forcing the default capitalist bureaucracy on you, so be creative: Graeber, Bullshit Jobs & Dawn of Everything…
on “How I operated as a Staff engineer at Heroku (2020)” ↗Why don't you read some books? - Out of the crisis and The new economics, Deming - Workplace Management and Toyota Production System, Ohno - Peopleware, DeMarco & Lister - Managing the professional service firm, Meister (delegation) - Leadership Handbook, US Army
on “Ask HN: How to be a manager? Any good sources for learning how to delegate?” ↗…(Fooled by Randomness seems to have it in the title). But then I strongly recommend branching out to places where these fundamentals are used, to cement them: - Anything popular by Deming (e.g. The New Economics) - Anything less popular by Deming (e.g. Some Theory of Sampling) - Moneyball - Theory of Probability (de Finetti) - Causality (Pearl) - Applied Survival Analysis - Analysis of Extremal Events -…
on “Uniqueness Bias: Why it matters, how to curb it” ↗A bit unconventional, but I think Wheeler's Understanding Variation followed by Deming's A New Economics teach people how to interpret past and future in a way that makes both exploration and exploitation more effective. I would not want to go through life not having read those -- much less run an early-stage…
on “Ask HN: Must-Read Books for Startups?” ↗…a quick napkin calculations. A lot of the things one ought to do are not actually necessary. There are way too many books to recommend here, but perhaps some of the most relevant are - Deming's The New Economics, and Out of the Crisis, - Reinertsen's Principles of Product Development Flow, - Ward's Lean Product and Process Development.
on “Ask HN: Best books on managing software complexity?” ↗This is topical but your comment reminded me of Deming’s New Economics. Rewards in a system with intrinsic variance are harmful and unjust.
on “Rethinking Levels, Promotions and Salaries” ↗Deming's 'The New Economics' is a great book. Just ignore the part about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The rest is solid gold.
on “The Toyota Production System (2013)” ↗…looking at the centre line in the rear view mirror" as someone put it. Theory and process is the only thing that can tell you anything about future results. I strongly recommend reading Deming's The New Economics.
on “Using “Frontend” or “Backend” to describe the Engineering you like (2020)” ↗…management and his System of Profound Knowledge and be far better off than adopting the agile fad of the week; even as I admit I still have open questions on how to apply his work to Software. (See "The New Economics" 3rd Edition, and "Out of the Crisis", both written by Deming).
on “Study finds 268% higher failure rates for Agile software projects” ↗I recently reread The New Economics. Deming talks about a factory worker screwing up on the production line, ruining a large quantity of product, and getting punished for it. He makes the argument that the design of the line, company policy,…
on “Internal Amazon documents shed light on how company pressures out office workers” ↗Except that according to the same website he stated the opposite of that quote. > It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” – W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics. https://deming.org/myth-if-you-cant-measure-it-you-cant-mana...
on “The “spreadsheet mentality” sucks, and kills the efficacy of jobs” ↗Deming actually wrote the opposite in The New Economics. https://blog.deming.org/2015/08/myth-if-you-cant-measure-it-...
on “Metrics-Driven Development” ↗Would you say more about Deming? I am 2/3 the way through The New Economics based on recommendations on HN. I love the boldness of some of his ideas. But also, some of them are.. not good ideas. Like, if you were to try to follow his prescription wholesale - it would not work…
on “El Ajedrecista” ↗