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larsinio's review
5.0
A book has never changed my life before. Sure i knew the tagline, sure i read about it on wikipedia and its relation to the dilbert principle. It was a cheery thought and interesting food for thought but didn't think too much about this. Found this book and the 2 that came after it at a local neighborhood book sale fundraiser for 50 cents each. Im a cog in a huge corporate hierarchy and so the subject was of specific relevance, so i gave the yellow'd book a shot.
What Larry Peter discusses, in a very systematic and extremely clever and well written way, is a completely different point of view to navigate through life. Not through explanation of power and personalities, not through technology and science, not through even histTry, but through our predominant social structual form - the hiearchy. Like spirals in nature, hierarchies are everywhere in human life.
The book opens up like a Wilde-esque flower of cleverness, starting off with the extremely concrete - the hiring and firing of the rank and file. It grows and grows as Peter gives more structure to the explanation with extremely funny terms like "percussive sublimation" and "lateral arabesque" used to describe methods to move inefficient workers. The book confronts the dark fear of every office worker - overwork and death. After such a nadir in mood, it then offers an extremely optimistic message and a way for not only to live your life happily but a way for humanity to step forward.
I thought this 1969 book would seem dated, but besides some over mention of people having multiple telephones, it seemed like it could have been written yesterday.
Its like if Douglas Adams wrote a business textbook.
What Larry Peter discusses, in a very systematic and extremely clever and well written way, is a completely different point of view to navigate through life. Not through explanation of power and personalities, not through technology and science, not through even histTry, but through our predominant social structual form - the hiearchy. Like spirals in nature, hierarchies are everywhere in human life.
The book opens up like a Wilde-esque flower of cleverness, starting off with the extremely concrete - the hiring and firing of the rank and file. It grows and grows as Peter gives more structure to the explanation with extremely funny terms like "percussive sublimation" and "lateral arabesque" used to describe methods to move inefficient workers. The book confronts the dark fear of every office worker - overwork and death. After such a nadir in mood, it then offers an extremely optimistic message and a way for not only to live your life happily but a way for humanity to step forward.
I thought this 1969 book would seem dated, but besides some over mention of people having multiple telephones, it seemed like it could have been written yesterday.
Its like if Douglas Adams wrote a business textbook.
zhzhang's review against another edition
4.0
It is small book, yet it contains a most important and powerful truth about competence and incompetence!
ashcomb's review against another edition
I can't rate this book. The concept of the Peter Principle is brilliant. The idea that we all rise to our level of incompetence in hierarchies has merit. It might explain a lot about our failures in politics, schools, bureaus, and businesses, and international relations. Laurence J. Peter shows how this happens with anecdotes and through caricature employees. And I think he is right to some extent. But when it comes to the explanation and the research. It is weak; only observations of things that prove his concept and not beyond that. Also, there was one thing, which made me want to throw the book out, the outdated views about humans and how we should be and want to be. Okay, this is a humorous book and should be taken as such. Still, I truly couldn't tell if he meant seriously that a housewife had risen to her level of incompetence when she was making herself busy outside the house with hobbies and other tasks and ignoring her primary job, which is to take care of her husband and children. First, he ignores the impact environment, situations, and our personal sense of meaning has on our behavior, needs, and wants (of the housewife and of the others he had used as examples.) Secondly, that is just plain wrong to think of a housewife and her dynamic relationship with her family and life through a level of incompetence as if there could be some objective level of competence here. I might be mistaken and didn't understand that the writer was taking a jab at the situation and customs of old hierarchies. And okay, I have to understand that this book was written in the sixties, so the roles he was accustomed were different to some extent. So here I am, confused about the book. It has a point, and considering our public affairs through people rising to their level of incompetence is great exercise, but to consider all human interactions and situations even in hierarchies through the Peter principle is like using a hammer when you actually need to screw something. That said, you should read this book.
andycyca's review
4.0
44 years after its publication, The Peter Principle still seems to apply to modern life, which is either a sign of how right Peter and Hull were back then, how little we (as a species) have learned from them, how powerless we really are before The Principle or a morbid mixture of all the above.
All things considered, it's well written, short, concise and useful, which makes it a must-read for every competent human being (and maybe some smart incompetent ones)
All things considered, it's well written, short, concise and useful, which makes it a must-read for every competent human being (and maybe some smart incompetent ones)
zentek's review
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.0
Altough it is dated and contains old-fashioned ideas (sexism and more), it offers a humourus explanation to one of life's greatest mysteries; why are so many incompetents gainfully employed and how that generates so many errors in every layer of our society.
Content Warnings
Contains sexism
blinker's review against another edition
3.0
This is a slim volume written in a wry style that can be a little much to read, but it explains some important truths about corporate life. Definitely somewhat dated, but worth a quick read for anyone who still labors under the illusion that those of us with fancy titles always know what we’re doing.
sergio's review against another edition
4.0
Pubblicato nel 1969, The Peter Principle è un concetto citato da tanti autori di management. Il principio è semplice, e teorizza che in una Gerarchia le persone vengono promosse fino al loro massimo livello di incapacità.
Scritto come un libro di management “serio”, infarcito di case studies (ma tutti dai nomi inventati), con decine di “leggi”, “principi” e “corollari” a darne una parvenza scientifica, è un libro che ha due livelli di lettura. Il primo, più immediato, sa di umorismo sarcastico, simile alle leggi di Murphy.
Ma a un secondo livello, il testo provoca un pensiero allo stato reale delle gerarchie in aziende e organizzazioni pubbliche. E il pensiero va a quel manager evidentemente incompetente che tutti abbiamo conosciuto.
Certo, il testo è datato, infarcito di un maschilismo oggi insopportabile. Ma alcuni paragrafi, aggiornati con le odierne nuove tecnologie, fanno davvero pensare che il Dottor Peter abbia davvero avuto tanta ragione da vendere.
Scritto come un libro di management “serio”, infarcito di case studies (ma tutti dai nomi inventati), con decine di “leggi”, “principi” e “corollari” a darne una parvenza scientifica, è un libro che ha due livelli di lettura. Il primo, più immediato, sa di umorismo sarcastico, simile alle leggi di Murphy.
Ma a un secondo livello, il testo provoca un pensiero allo stato reale delle gerarchie in aziende e organizzazioni pubbliche. E il pensiero va a quel manager evidentemente incompetente che tutti abbiamo conosciuto.
Certo, il testo è datato, infarcito di un maschilismo oggi insopportabile. Ma alcuni paragrafi, aggiornati con le odierne nuove tecnologie, fanno davvero pensare che il Dottor Peter abbia davvero avuto tanta ragione da vendere.
ishaantiwari's review
5.0
"Creative Incompetence beats Peter's Parry - Every Time!"
Incredibly tongue-in-cheek book that actually changed my perspective in life as soon as I started reading it and now I can't go a few days without seeing the principle in action. What seems like a joke or a gimmick that could last a small speech is actually incredibly well thought out with perfect examples to make sense of the absurdity. Incredibly funny often alliterative names are surprisingly well thought out. don't think I'll be forgetting about the Edifice Complex or Peter's Parry any time soon. I loved the personality the writing has and I can picture the sense of humour the writer might've had.
Incredibly tongue-in-cheek book that actually changed my perspective in life as soon as I started reading it and now I can't go a few days without seeing the principle in action. What seems like a joke or a gimmick that could last a small speech is actually incredibly well thought out with perfect examples to make sense of the absurdity. Incredibly funny often alliterative names are surprisingly well thought out. don't think I'll be forgetting about the Edifice Complex or Peter's Parry any time soon. I loved the personality the writing has and I can picture the sense of humour the writer might've had.