O Princípio de Peter

The classic #1 New York Times bestseller that answers the age-old question. Why is incompetence so maddeningly rampant and so vexingly triumphant? The Peter Principle, the eponymous law Dr. Laurence J. Peter coined, explains that everyone in a hierarchy-from the office intern to the CEO, from the low-level civil servant to a nation's president-will inevitably rise to his or her level of incompetence. Dr. Peter explains why incompetence is at the root of everything we endeavor to do-why schools bestow ignorance, why governments condone anarchy, why courts dispense injustice, why prosperity causes unhappiness, and why utopian plans never generate utopias. With the wit of Mark Twain, the psychological acuity of Sigmund Freud, and the theoretical impact of Isaac Newton, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull's The Peter Principle brilliantly explains how incompetence and its accompanying symptoms, syndromes, and remedies define the world and the work we do in it.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member dishdasha

A scary explanation about why we see much incompetence in daily life. The problem is that I am incompetent to understand the book myself. Most of the time I cannot tell if the author is serious or kidding.

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LibraryThing member CurrLee33

Laurence Peter describes the incompetent world, particular that of the common workplace, in very astute and definitive terms. We already know the world is full of idiots who somehow got to an admirable level of success and “achievement,” however Peter breaks down this thought into a polished

and elaborate theory/principle. There isn’t much offered in how to change the Peter Principle, which leaves the reader with a bleak outlook of his or her workplace future. Highly pessimistic, this book is definitely funny and sadly very true.

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LibraryThing member lassiter

In this day when there seems to be so much incompetence it would behoove one to read The Peter Principle. Ever been frustrated over breakdowns, poor workmanship, slothfulness, and sheer stupidity? Find out if you've reached your highest level of incompetency.

LibraryThing member keylawk

Why is the human race foundering in a morass of occupational, academic, and administrative inefficiency? Approach the gallows with humor -- and die at your highest level of incompetence.

LibraryThing member WalkerMedia

For those who have searched for a simple explanation of Murphy's law beyond a generalized pessimism, this is your book. It describes how organizations fail by describing how organizational structure serves to magnify the individual failures of the people within it. Simply put, the Peter Principle

is thus: each person rises to the level of his/her incompetence in any organization, and then, unable to move up, spends the rest of a career failing to perform and making the rest of us suffer. I had heard of this principle before reading this book, but had not realized it to be more than a comedian's punch line. In fact, however, there's a frightening amount of wisdom to be found in this book.

Just ponder for a moment your own place of employ. Think of all the meetings and the futile attempts at correcting mind-numbing insults to productivity and common sense. Now hear Peter's explanation: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties...Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." Generally people make a good-faith effort to perform their jobs well, but the nature of bureaucracy takes its toll eventually. Peter's book explains how the system doesn't work and classifies the various forms of the problem. He helpfully provides ways to manipulate faulty systems and use the Pull of Patrons to rise to your own desired level. He also gives ways to evade succombing to final placement yourself through creative incompetence that masks a genuine productivity and thus avoids unwelcome promotion. By coining numerous deadpan terms, Peter actually communicates genuine organizational problems in a non-threatening way. Whether you are in business, government, education, or any other bureaucratic slog, you can at last see the reason for your frustrations, even if humor alone is often your only solace. There are, of course, some elements of the book that have not been updated. The phonophilia has morphed to gadgetophilia, and tabulatory gigantism to iphone polyappism, but some features such as compulsory alternation, are timeless.

Go read this book, before you are faced with that most sad sign of Final Placement, utter irrelevance.

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LibraryThing member asails

One of the best explanations given about the way people make their way through organisations.

LibraryThing member CarloA

Funny at tmes, but the made up exemples are way too many. The book equivalent of an executive toy... Fun for a short while. In any case, it's worth a quick read once

LibraryThing member NaggedMan

Fully explains how organisations survive

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

Probably true, This little eye-opener explains a good deal about some of the people who I have encountered in my life. Sad, isn't it...oh yes! The principle involved is "Executives seem to be promoted to one step past their overall level of skill/expertise."

LibraryThing member andycyca

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)

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LibraryThing member mykl-s

A tongue in cheek description of careers and organizations.

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