The very terrific Dan Davies and I discuss his new book, and how Stafford Beer’s management cybernetics can help us make sense of what’s going wrong, and do something about it. Hint: we’ve fallen for the idea that massive systems can be effectively self-governing. But they can’t be.
00:00 - Highlights
01:52 - Introducing Dan Davies and The Unaccountability Machine
03:05 - The book in a nutshell.
06:08 - Marx
08:04 - Critical thinking, the professions and academic disciplines
11:35 - Economists and in particular Friedrich Hayek
19:14 - Ideologies
24:01 - Why humour is so often one of the best forms of insight and critique
25:52 - The purpose of a system is what it does
29:20 - The idiocy of mission statement
34:57 - Systems and governance
38:36 - Dan's marvellous metaphor of two ways to solve Rubik’s cube
41:46 - Management and managerialism
49:12 - Governments during covid: the failure to think critically
52:39 - Brand managers
56:32 - Thames water
59:42 - Debt as the driver of 'hollowing out'
1:02:57 - The CAMO response to an intellectual impasse.
1:05:45 - Back to humour as our conclusion
