Applying James C. Scott's 'Legibility' Concept to Software Companies
By
praptak
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
This article explores James C. Scott's concept of 'legibility' from his book 'Seeing Like A State' and applies it to modern software companies. The core argument is that organizations maximize control by making systems 'legible' - measurable and reportable - but this often comes at the cost of efficiency because it ignores essential 'illegible' work that cannot be tracked or planned. The piece examines how this tension between legibility and efficiency plays out in software development and organizational management.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledModern organizations exert control by maximising 'legibility': by altering the system so that all parts of it can be measured, reported on, and so on.
However, these organizations are dependent on a huge amount of 'illegible' work: work that cannot be tracked or planned for, but is nonetheless essential.
Increasing legibility thus often actually lowers efficiency - but the other benefits are high enough that organizations are typically willing to do so regardless.
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