An apt question, which is seemingly one which is now seriously being asked by investors and CEO’s everywhere, leading to 2024 being another year of lay offs as organisations seek to rationalise down the bloat. They need to be careful though, because - just like ‘junk DNA’ in cellular biology - we might only find out the necessary work what certain people and functions really do after they are gone. Dan Luu as ever with
sharpest of takes. Follow up Luu’s take with another excellent essay on
Why do companies hire people to be idle a lot of the time? The push for efficiency makes sense, but no system is designed to run at 100% utilisation for long.