Software engineering has taught us to worship scale.

More users. More teams. More products. More responsibilities. More people per manager. More output with fewer resources. And now, with AI, the promise of even more scaling.

Because software organizations are built by engineers, we naturally try to apply the same thinking to the organization itself: optimize, automate, standardize, increase the span of control, remove bottlenecks, scale.

Until we hit a problem that doesn't behave like software.

People.

There is a limit to how many people one person can genuinely understand, support, challenge, coach and care for. And when organizations cross that limit, something subtle happens: management becomes administration, leadership becomes delegation, weak signals disappear, and problems surface later and cost more to solve.

The organization may look more efficient on paper, but it necessarily isn't.

Care doesn't scale. And pretending that it does may be one of the most expensive mistakes an organization can make.

So, as your organization keeps growing, keeps optimizing and keeps asking its leaders to do more with more people, ask yourself this question :

Do you still care about your people so they can take care of your product?

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