Scalability (and things that don't)...
Category: People
Published: 01/12/2009 05:30 p.m.
There are many things that I see daily that don't scale well. The idea behind scaling things is to take something that works well and make it bigger, so that the good output is increased. Buying stock scales. If you can make a dollar on one share, you can easily make a million on a million. Some businesses scale, but many do not. The idea behind scalability is that you maintain the same structure and effect, and it is not increased or decreased (at least by much). Some things multiply when grown; this is called synergy. Others, like offering multiple product lines, show a diminishing return, but it is still an increase. To the point, scalability offers balance and structure. So, without further waiting...
Democracy doesn't scale. The best use is in the Supreme Court. With such a small group (9), everyone can be heard, can understand what's being voted upon, and their can be a decision. I'd even guess you could increase to 11 at the most. But soon, as the numbers increase, popularity and apathy overwhelm the group. It is seen in a class election in elementary school, and it is seen in a national election. Plus, scale also opens the door for cheating, which is tough to do in a room of 9. But, people think it's "fair", so it continues to be used and pushed and etc.
Attention doesn't scale. Attention is more of an on/off type of thing. Watching four games at once isn't really paying attention to four things at once. You are just moving your attention around, and really missing out on things that you aren't focused on. That's why they invented replay. The same is true of IM, teleconferences, and meetings that allow people to keep their blackberries. People can move their attention, but they can't increase it.
Eating doesn't scale. It's been said that the first bite is always the best, and the rest are just chasing that feeling. That is very true. As much as something tastes great, you can't just keeping eating and expecting the good tastes to last. Plus, you get full. Even one slice to two will not scale very well, up or down. And...
Exercise doesn't scale. Sure, certain exercises will burn a certain amount of calories every time you do them. But weight loss and physical fitness require lots of work and show results at first, but that tapers quickly. Then all that work becomes maintaining the current instead of something that makes progress.
Work doesn't scale. I've touched on this before, but the idea that if you double your hours to double your productivity is nuts. People get bored, distracted, uninterested, and burnt out. Some people can eek out a bit more with a lot of extra time, but this certainly isn't to scale. Output is based on knowledge, experience, focus, will, and talent. And time to a degree.
These are just a few examples of things that don't scale well, but people try to scale all the time. Instead, there needs to be different, more effective solutions. If lots of exercise at once doesn't change things, then pace it out. If you need more work out of your employees, then do things to better enable them, or hire more people. And if democracy doesn't scale, then find a more realistic solution. This may be difficult, because democracy also carries ideas of fairness, and most other systems don't have that. The other option is to admit what you have doesn't work great, but it's better than anything else. (This card gets played too often).