In a bureaucratic system, useless work drives out useful work. — Milton Friedman

In a bureaucratic system, useless work drives out useful work.

Author: Milton Friedman

Insight: We've all felt this at work: the moment you realize you're spending three hours organizing a spreadsheet that nobody will actually read, or sitting through a meeting whose only purpose is to prove the meeting happened. The work feels real—you're busy, productive even—but it's hollow. And here's what makes it insidious: the busywork doesn't just waste time. It actively crowds out the things that actually matter. This happens because useless work is often easier to measure and defend. You can point to the report, the checklist, the attendance log. Useful work is messier. A teacher spending time really understanding why a student is struggling doesn't produce a neat metric. A manager having honest conversations with their team doesn't show up on a dashboard. So the system—whether it's schools, offices, or government—starts rewarding what's visible and documentable, even when everyone knows it's padding. The trap is that once this pattern takes hold, opting out starts to look irresponsible. If everyone else is doing the performative work, stepping back feels risky. But workplaces and institutions that actually function well are usually the ones where someone, somewhere, had the courage to ask: "Does this actually matter?" and acted on the honest answer.

Source: There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, 1975, p. 256