The Principles of Scientific Management
by Frederick Winslow Taylor · first published 1911
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This is a management classic that is actually a short booklet. It is Taylor's key statement of his approach to developing standards for work performance on the basis of study and observation as opposed to a reliance on standard "rules of thumb."
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…studies, the separation of planning from working, etc. But that overlooks his lasting contribution, which is that the systems that are used to do work could be studied and scientifically improved. His 1911 "Principles of Scientific Management" is actually a very short read, is in the public domain, and is quite fun. You can get it for free for your Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Scientific-Management-ebook...
on “Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management” ↗I wonder how many people who paraphrase Taylor's "Principles of Scientific Management" have carefully read it. Taylor exposes several insights that are antithetical to the commonly paraphrased version "Faster is better. More hours are better." At least in the context of moving pig iron…
on “How GitHub Works: Hours are Bullshit” ↗…about parallel concepts in the management and organization of information and its processes. Work efficiency could now be measured not by bricks or steel, but by their information flows. F. W. Taylor, “Principles of Scientific Management”, Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1911.
on “Machine Learning: The Great Stagnation” ↗…that the participation of U.S. industrialists in the years before the war had profound impact on Soviet industrialization. "The Communist party translated and published [Fredrick W.] Taylor’s book The Principles of Scientific Management, and high authorities brought over Walter Polakov, an American follower of Henry L. Gantt, one of Taylor’s most fervent disciples, to provide a liaison with American scientific-management experts and…
on “How the War Was Won” ↗It's almost as if we have regressed in some ways to the "principles of scientific management" (Frederick Winslow Taylor) with our focus on quantitative over qualitative (and not balanced between the two).
on “Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply” ↗This kind of dehumanization isn't at all new in factory-type environments. Frederick Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management[1] was very popular 100 years ago, and included things like time and motion studies[2] which served to optimize processes as much as possible and remove individual variations as much as possible. The…
on “Seasonal Associate” ↗Humans have been measuring between human only vs augmented labor for literal centuries. Frederick Taylor literally invented the process you describe in his “principles of scientific management” This is the entire focus of the Toyota automation model. The consistent empirical pattern is: Machine-only systems outperform humans on narrow, formalizable tasks. Human-machine hybrid systems outperform…
on “AGI fantasy is a blocker to actual engineering” ↗…theory on" to act out the outcomes he wanted to see for company higher ups. And he acted like what I've come to expect from managers: first he commits scientific fraud, then writes a book and titles it "Principles of Scientific Management". Because when you go for bullshit, the big lesson is: don't just bullshit a little. Go all out. Weber and Fayol were no different, and even Ford ... let's just say that if you focus on his technical…
on “New Study: Rewarding Good Teachers and Firing Bad Ones Accomplishes Nothing” ↗It is really a deeper problem that "productivity" works in a factory producing widgets as output per labor-hour of widgets. The Principles of Scientific Management was just wrong that these ideas extend universally but we are still doing this stupid Barnesian performance as if they do. It clearly makes no sense with knowledge work. It is stupid. Then the efficient…
on “New Mac mini, featuring M6 and M5 Pro” ↗…worked on the shop floor of a steel plant, witnessing chaotic production practices. After: Developed Taylorism, a systematic approach to labor efficiency, consulting for major firms and publishing The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), reshaping industrial labor organization. 4. John D. Rockefeller – Small‑scale merchant → Oil magnate Before: Ran a modest produce‑selling business in Cleveland, Ohio, struggling after the Panic…
on “I canceled my book deal” ↗