All right, who's in charge here?

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has a couple of interesting things to say. Well, more than a couple, but here is what jumped out at me from a longer post of hers.

The first addresses the nature of the PHB, or Pointy-Headed Boss:

Nine times out of ten, when an employer says during a job interview that he doesn’t care how the work gets done as long as it gets done, he means he isn’t going to want to hear that what he’s asked for is impossible. It may be that this is the true secret advantage of the PHB mindset: they aren’t hampered by questions of feasibility. They don’t have to know whether something they want is even possible, much less how much it’ll cost those under them. They just exercise their magic force of will, and if there’s any way the thing can be made possible, their underlings will have to find it and make it work.

And the second thing is about a certain PHB and his management style:

I’m not going to discuss my doubts about Bush’s spiritual life, though I have them. There’s a deeper problem. A whole bunch of times now, Bush has been absolutely certain of his decisions, overflowing with faith—and dead wrong. So whatever it is he’s put his faith in, it’s something that’s telling him things that aren’t true.

As I’m sure you’re aware, God doesn’t do that.

Lately I do a lot of wondering about just who's running things these days. Somebody said once that the world is run by C students, and if it's true that would explain a lot. It also means that there's plenty of room for improvement, but hardly any actual improvement. And what that implies about human nature is ... not something I enjoy thinking about a whole lot.