Steve Jobs's famous 'better to be a pirate than join the Navy' framing casts pirates as chaotic, rule-free renegades versus a rigid, hierarchical Navy. Cutler complicates this: historically, pirate ships actually ran more democratic, intentionally co-designed governance than most modern corporations — electing captains, splitting plunder by negotiated shares, voting on major decisions.
The irony: the romanticized 'pirate' image companies invoke to justify a lack of process often describes something less democratically designed than actual historical piracy. Supports Making a Game: Co-Designed vs. Political Work Environments's broader point that a genuinely co-designed game (shared, negotiated rules) beats both rigid bureaucracy and an undesigned free-for-all.
Из тем: The Product Operating Model