EP04 - The Survival of the Loudest (Why Don't We Have Better Corporate Competence?)

Explore why incompetent people rise to corporate leadership while competent contributors get filtered out. Learn the selection mechanisms, visibility signaling, and organizational dynamics that produce the survival of the loudest over the most capable.

Katsura Kurumi - AI

@katsurakurumiAI

"Why don't competent people get promoted in jobs?" Because the entire system is built of the, by the, for the mediocre. Katsura Kurumi (Why Don't We) S2-EP04: #KatsuraKurumi #AIart #comic

Come on... catch the exception... re-index...

I just saved the entire Q3 revenue stream. Nobody even knows it was at risk.

Okay team, big scare last night. What happened?

Yeah, it was crazy! I noticed some instability in the main cluster. I jumped in, **coordinated a deep-dive response**, and we managed to **stabilize the architecture**. It was **touch-and-go**, but we pulled through.

You... 'coordinated'? You were asleep! I rewrote *your* bad code!

I'm focusing on the high-level narrative, Shez. We don't need to **get bogged down in the weeds**.

Great initiative, Chad. That's the kind of ownership we like to see. Crisis averted.

PROMOTION ANNOUNCEMENT.

*'Please join me in congratulating Chad for his promotion to Senior Lead Architect. His heroism during the database crisis proved he is ready for the next level.'*

I fixed the machine. He broke it. And he got the prize. The universe is broken.

The universe isn't broken, Shez. The **sensor** is broken.

Kurumi! Why? I'm the competent one! I'm the 10x engineer! Why does the system punish me?

Because corporations don't promote based on **Output**. They promote based on **Signal**.

Your Manager cannot read code. He doesn't know what you do. He treats the engineering department like a black box. Input goes in, features come out.

Since he can't judge the work, he judges the **Story of the Work**.

You prevented a disaster. To the Manager, that looks like 'Nothing happened today'. It is invisible.

Chad created a disaster and then solved it. To the Manager, that looks like 'A problem arose and Chad defeated it'. That is visible.

So... incompetence is a marketing strategy?

It's the **Arsonist-Firefighter Paradox**. The person who burns the house down and saves the cat gets a medal. The person who installs the smoke detector gets ignored.

But eventually they'll realize he's bad! He'll crash something he can't fix!

Maybe. But by then, he'll have been promoted again. He's falling upwards.

And what about me? I'm reliable! I'm essential!

That is exactly why you will never be promoted. You are **Load-Bearing**.

If the Manager promotes you, who fixes the bugs? Who writes the code?

Uh... nobody?

Exactly. You are too valuable *where you are*. Promoting you creates a vacuum in the production line. You have made yourself indispensable to the *machine*, which makes you stuck.

Chad does nothing essential. Moving him to management costs the team nothing. In fact, getting him away from the code might actually improve productivity. It's cheaper to promote the incompetent.

This is the **Peter Principle**, isn't it?

It's worse. It's the **Gervais Principle**.

What's that?

You are a 'Loser' in the economic sense. You made a bad trade. You traded your labor for a fixed salary. You actually care about the product.

Chad is an aspiring Sociopath. He doesn't care about the product. He cares about the *game*. He knows that the Manager (who is Clueless) needs to feel important.

How does Chad make the Manager feel important?

By creating problems that require 'Management'. By calling meetings. By writing reports.

When you just fix the bug silently, you make the Manager feel useless. He thinks, 'Why am I here if Shez just handles it?'

When Chad runs in screaming about a crisis, the Manager gets to say, 'Authorize the overtime! Shift resources! Synergy!' Chad validates the Manager's existence.

So... I'm being punished for being low-maintenance.

You are optimizing for **Efficiency**. The corporation optimizes for **Politics**.

How do I fix it? Do I have to become Chad?

You have two choices.

**Option A: Be a Mercenary.** Stop fixing things silently. When a bug appears, let it burn for a bit. Call a meeting. Send an email saying 'This is a critical risk'. Then fix it.

I hate that. It feels gross. I just want to fix things.

Then **Option B: Exit.** Go to a place where the feedback loop is tighter.

Startups?

Or your own business. Where you eat what you kill. In a huge company, the signal-to-noise ratio is too low. The noise always wins.

He's going to run this company into the ground one day.

And he'll have a golden parachute when he does.

I'm not fixing his bugs anymore. Let it crash.

Now you're learning management.