Cargo Culture
Ed Zitron argues that "cargo cult" thinking leads tech companies to blindly copy FAANG practices without understanding them, creating wasteful work cultures and prioritizing growth theater over real innovation.
Background
- The article critiques "cargo cult" thinking in the software industry—blindly copying practices (e.g., Agile, microservices, "move fast") from successful companies like Amazon or Google without understanding the underlying reasons those practices worked.
- "Cargo cult" is a metaphor from World War II Pacific islands, where indigenous people mimicked military rituals (building dummy airstrips) hoping cargo planes would return; in tech it means imitating surface-level behaviors while missing the deeper logic.
- The author, Ed Zitron, runs a newsletter covering tech industry dysfunction, layoffs, and the gap between tech hype and reality. He argues that many current engineering orthodoxies are harmful rituals rather than evidence-based methods.