Bookmarks… Rules as a reaction to failure

Great thoughts on how bureaucracy begins:

• From jaygarmon.net: Making rules is admitting failure
• and 37signals: Don’t scar on the first cut

However, lets not forget the other side of the equation:

• Hyperactive attorneys [hot liquid warnings on coffee cups]
• Hyperactive congress [regulations on how long business records, email, etc. have to be held]
• Overreaction to 1 in a million accidents, i.e., not respecting the statistical risk of getting killed by a falling satellite vs. the risk of being hit by a car while on your motorcycle.

However, in general, humans just prefer to apply very general solutions to very specific problems.