Institutions were once grand edifices to power - schools, corporations and governments loom like ancient monoliths, promising stability and progress.
It’s very tempting to hitch your wagon to their star. They can indeed propel you forward, with a steady paycheck, a prestigious degree and a safe continuing role.
But here’s the truth, institutions aren’t there to architect your destiny.
They’re just landlords of the bigger empire.
You are just a cog in their bigger machine.
The disconnect isn’t malice; its mechanics.
Institutions are machines that are optimised for self preservation and the management of risk.
They’re not there to facilitate individual flourishing. They churn out standardised solutions for imagined averages.
They ignore your individual hopes and dreams.
And you’ve all seen it:
- The school curriculum bores geniuses into dropouts.
- The healthcare system treats symptoms, but ignores prevention.
- City planners prioritise economic viability over aestetic. (or the other way around).
Arguing with these gatekeeprs is pointless.
It’s like debating a vending machine.
You can push buttons all day long, but unless you put some money in, it won’t drop you a snack.
Did the machine harm you and do you really want to fight it?
Fighting an organisation is the dumbest thing you can do.
It can affect your future reputation didn't you know? 😉
Many folks fall for this romantic notion they can beat the machine.
It’s the dumbest trap you can fall for.
As soon as you fight an institution, you become a risk.
They have processes for this; and it's rigged for them to win, and you to lose.
The shrewdest move:
- Side step the problem and cut your losses. Do not take on an institution.
- To do this you need to minimise your expectations to near-zero of what institutions will deliver you.
- Extract what you can - like a job for survival - but treat it as a transaction.
- Cap your investment - Weigh the effort against alternatives.
- Obey rules at work, but look for other environments where you can maneuver freely.
- Stay out of courtrooms at all costs. They are an institution designed to protect institutions.
- Stay shadowy where you can: Predictability invites control. If they don’t know what you’re doing they wont bother you.
Why institutions are so crap at delivering anything for the individual
Why do institutions almost universally miss the mark for all people?
A lot of people think it's incompetence. It's not it’s evolution.
Everything is a derivative of outdated assumptions from the industrial age.
The current crop of leaders are not builders. They are guardians.
They have been chosen to manage risk first and foremost.
Consider the design of the system itself:
- Protocol paralysis:
- Everything is based on precident.
- Even with seismic shifts like the introduction of AI, the best they can muster is Pilots, and Ethics. They won’t life a finger to change until survival demands it.
- Red tape is their armor:
- You’re given a choice in a bureaucracy. You can comply with rules or achieve nothing. If you break the rules you live with the consequences.
- Organisations will drown you in committees, audits and ‘feasibility pilots’.
- They live by the tyranny of the ledger and it’s a zero sum game:
- Finance teams workshop the financial year. Revenue in, costs out. Pitch a visionary investment that exceeds that envelope in a single cycle, and its most likely going to be a no. Only a true Maverick can overwhelm this.
- Organisations don't always act on feedback:
- Sure they’ll send you a survey. But action? Rare.
- Institutions will tolerate background discontent.
- The reason they survey you is to minimise loud chatter when things go wrong.
Conclusion
So where does this leave you?
The shrewd path forward is neither blind institutional faith nor futile rebellion, but a strategic kind of autonomy:
- Build your own infrastructure: Create personal systems that don't rely on institutional approval. Self education, side hustles, and personal networks can provide resilience.
- Maintain optionality: Never put all your eggs in one institutional basket. Diversify your skills, income streams, and social capital.
- Practice institutional judo: Learn to extract value while minimising dependency. Use institutions as tools, not as identity markers or life foundations.
- Cultivate personal sovereignty: Develop the capacity to define success on your own terms, not through institutional validation.
The true freedom lies not in fighting bureaucracies but in building a life where their limitations become increasingly irrelevant to your flourishing.
Institutions will always be what they are – use them when beneficial, step around them when necessary, but never entrust them with your dreams.