Beware the Philosopher Bureaucrat
Taleb argues that useful rules can save the effort of reconsidering a problem from first principles each time. His bureaucrat and tiger stories illustrate situations where prolonged analysis would delay an adequate response.
THE IDEA
BEWARE THE PHILOSOPHER BUREAUCRAT
For a long time we had the wrong product specifications when we thought of ourselves. We humans have been under the belief that we were endowed with a beautiful machine for thinking and understanding things. However, among the factory specifications for us is the lack of awareness of the true factory specifications (why complicate things?). The problem with thinking is that it causes you to develop illusions. And thinking may be such a waste of energy! Who needs it!
Consider that you are standing in front of a government clerk in a heavily socialist country where being a bureaucrat is held to be what respectable people do for a living. You are there to get your papers stamped by him so you can export some of their lovely chocolate candies to the New Jersey area, where you think the local population would have a great taste for them. What do you think his function is? Do you think for a minute that he cares about the general economic theory behind the transaction? His job is just to verify that you have the twelve or so signatures from the right departments, true/false; then stamp your papers and let you go. General considerations of economic growth or balance of trade are none of his interests. In fact you are lucky that he doesn't spend any time meditating about these things: Consider how long the procedure would take if he had to solve balance of trade equations. He just has a rulebook and, over a career spanning forty to forty-five years, he will just stamp documents, be mildly rude, and go home to drink nonpasteurized beer and watch soccer games. If you gave him Paul Krugman's book on international economics he would either sell it in the black market or give it to his nephew.
Accordingly, rules have their value. We just follow them not because they are the best but because they are useful and they save time and effort. Consider that those who started theorizing upon seeing a tiger on whether the tiger was of this or that taxonomic variety, and the degree of danger it represented, ended up being eaten by it. Others who just ran away at the smallest presumption and were not slowed down by the smallest amount of thinking ended up either outchasing the tiger or outchasing their cousin who ended up being eaten by it.
When to use it
A startup founder uses simple rules for hiring (e.g., 'hire for attitude, train for skill') instead of elaborate personality tests.
A policy maker implements standard procedures for routine approvals to reduce decision fatigue and increase efficiency.
An emergency responder relies on established protocols rather than theoretical analysis to save lives in time-critical situations.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
The Bureaucrat and the Chocolate Export
Taleb imagines a clerk processing a chocolate-export application. Checking the required signatures lets the clerk complete a routine task without solving questions about international trade. The rule saves time, even though it is not a complete theory of the transaction.
Tiger Encounter: Think or Run?
In Taleb’s tiger story, stopping to classify the animal delays escape. He uses the exaggerated comparison to illustrate why a rapid rule-based response can be useful when delay is costly.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
When in your daily routine do you follow rules without considering if they are optimal? What would happen if you questioned every rule?
Can you recall a time when overthinking led to a poor decision? How would applying the bureaucrat heuristic have changed the outcome?
In what professional contexts is rule-following essential, and when does it become harmful to innovation?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Fooled by Randomness The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)