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OrphanWilde comments on Subsuming Purpose, Part II: Solving the Solution - Less Wrong
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Comments (6)
Huh. Interesting. Eliezer seems to imply, in that post, that individuals aren't as susceptible to this as organizations. Maybe it's just harder to notice?
Individuals are indeed just as susceptible. And it is indeed harder to notice, just like an organization as a whole rarely notices its own lost purpose. Taking instrumental goals for terminal values is a common pattern.
"The Solution" depends on "The Problem", which depends on "Whose Problem?"
I'll talk corporate bureaucracy.
Organizations are made of people who are acting to solve their own problems, which are primarily their personal power, security, and status. Even if there were precise agreement on what the "organization's goals" are, aligning individual incentives with the organization's goals is extremely hard, even in the broadest sense.
"Our people are our greatest asset." Probably. But they're also parasites feeding as well as they can on the organizational host.
That's just the incentive problem. There's also the knowledge problem.
Individuals can lose sight of their purpose as well, but a person has more coherent interests and knowledge.
This. It is easier to lose the sight of a goal, if you were never told about it, or if it is not actually your goal.
Sometimes people forget their own goals, just like described in this article, but forgetting someone else's goal is much easier.