A 1955 satirical essay gave us Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time available

money & economicsWikipedia1955

A 1955 satirical essay gave us Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time available

the gist

Parkinson's Law began as a joke. In 1955 the naval historian C. Northcote Parkinson published a satirical essay in The Economist, written after a British royal commission report on the civil service. It made two claims. The first was that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion, so a task given a week will take a week. The second was that the number of workers in public administration tends to grow regardless of how much work there is, because officials multiply subordinates and create work for one another. Despite its tongue-in-cheek origin, both ideas have been widely adopted in management science and social psychology as explanations for bureaucratic bloat.

how it works

The first finding works through self-imposed deadlines: when time is available, people fill it with extra polishing, meetings and checking, so the work stretches to the deadline. The second finding works through incentives in organisations, where a manager's status often depends on the number of people they supervise, so adding staff becomes a rational move even when the work does not need it.

so what

It shows how a witty observation about institutions can outlast the reports it was mocking.

the bigger pattern

Similar ideas appear elsewhere. Economists describe a related dynamic in public sector hiring as empire building, and management writers have long noted that tasks expand to fit the budgets and time allocated to them.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗