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No this is not a new indie band. But now that I think of it, that would be a cool name.
So anyway, it seems like current events are my focus, and let’s get to Jensen Huang, his ever-increasing number of affairs, and his departure from NVIDIA. It actually illustrates a larger problem in society, businesses, and project teams. Am I going to relate this to Project Management? Hell yes.
So anyway as of this posting Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, had an affair with a Chinese Spy for awhile, it was less of a secret than you might think, he also turns out to have had an affair with his co-worker. No word from his wife, and hey maybe they have an arrangement, so I don’t know what she’s going through. So as you may guess, Jensen is out and this is a giant shitshow involving mysterious shipments to China, the AI bubble, and more.
I’m not going to explore it. It’s ever-changing. It’s also easily summarized as “really famous Tech CEO turns out to be unwise, compromised, and horny so he’s out.” This was a guy I once heard called one of the least offensive Techbros, and I can’t say if he keeps that title. But he’s an object lesson in many things.
I’d like to focus on why he’s an object lesson for system failure.
So Huang is rich, powerful, and apparently compromised by at least one major nation. His company is the shovel-seller for the AI goldrush. Huang is the classic example of the big CEO, and it turns out he’s a critical point of failure. We don’t know how much damage he’s done, from bad decisions to security risks to more, but we can guess.
In fact, we can guess more. Cheating with a Chinese spy? That makes NVIDIA’s recent financial dealings and valuations even more questionable. What other bad decisions are in there, or just not apparent until we re-assess his behavior.
Jensen is also not alone. Americans seem to be enchanted with the idea of Some Big Daddy who is a super genius that can do everything. I think it’s mostly evolved in the Business world based on commentary I’ve seen, and then leaked into politics. America certainly forgot the lesson of “don’t trust the guy who says he can solve everything.”
The thing is, a lot of attitudes now, especially in business and government are very culty. We want to believe some people are just super-duper mega-brilliant geniuses, often despite evidence to the contrary. This hero worship, this consolidation of power, makes those figures of worship points of failure.
First, the idea that someone is a super-genius renaissance genius capable of leading us all is a joke. No one is an expert in politics, economics, history, medicine, etc. Worshipping such people and empowering them makes them a point of failure – but often they stay at their positions, their office, etc. and keep doing damage.
I’m all for experts. But I want to see results, and a lot of people who WANT to be cult leaders are people who should be given no power whatsoever, ever.
Secondly, even if you had some genius who was a major polymath with social skills, they are still a point of failure. People age. People get insulated due to wealth and fame. People develop drug habits. People get compromised by clever Chinese spies. Even in the fantasy world of some kind of Intellectual Superman, that person is still a point of failure – it just takes once.
Third, this isn’t just politicians and CEOs and kings and religious leaders. This is everything in an organization, formal or informal. People who are the Center of All things will lead others to failure eventually by being, yes, a single point of failure. In a really bad organization you have a hierarchy of people trying to be the Big Name while all making terrible decisions.
You’ve probably been there. Our desires for the Big Leader goes up AND down the corporate ladder and it doesn’t work. We KNOW this.
This is why I’m big on Agile, on networking, on representation, and on limits to power. Organizations need to involve teams and listening and connection. People must be represented as no one knows what everyone goes through. Most of all you need businesses and communities that don’t rely on some central figure so they can adapt and adjust.
Jensen Huang may be a figure of mockery, but he’s really just the latest example of someone who’s a Single Point of Failure. And it’s not that funny when you step back.
(Well it’s still FUNNY, but you know what I mean).
Steven Savage