Worshipping at the Altar of Decentralization
So, one of Hive's primary ostensible "selling points" is the fact that Hive is decentralized. Or, at least, something that resembles decentralized.
Decentralization is a fine and great idea, and it represents certainly one model of organizational structure in this rather large and complicated world.
But sometimes I get the feeling that there are a lot of people who literally "worship at the altar of decentralization," viewing it like it is the be all, end all solution to virtually all the world's problems.
I guess I take issue with that.
As I just said, decentralization is merely an organizational structure of sorts. In and of itself it isn't really a thing. It doesn't solve the world's problems except to the extent that we find effective ways to apply it. Thinking otherwise is akin to suggesting that a particular economic or political philosophy is THE answer to all situations.
And sometimes, it might be. But sometimes it's not the most effective way to do something.
In fact, there are times when decentralization actually gets in the way of effectiveness. For one, decentralization tends to be a "decision making by committee" situation which can be glacially slow if you are trying to move on an opportunity. After all, you have to reach consensus before anything can be done.
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The other thing that I often observe is that decentralization evangelists tend to want to throw away everything related to centralized structures when, in fact, a centralized approach is sometimes by far the most effective way to do things.
I realize that may not be a popular thing to say around here, but there are definitely times when we're actually best off if we blend attributes of both centralization and decentralization to come up with an effective hybrid that actually solves the problem rather than puts all its energy into standing fast on only doing things one way.
On a more "real world" scale, one of the places I have observed some of the trouble with decentralization has been in the increadibly laborious approach our Hive community has approached marketing/publicizing our platform.
"Well, we're all free to take our individual approach," some will argue. Indeed, but as individuals we lack the cohesion and clout to make much of an impact... not to mention having the economies of scale of a (somewhat) central structure.
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Your point about the glacial pace of decision making is so true. It often feels like we spend more time debating how to do something than actually getting it done. I agree that a hybrid approach is likely more practical than holding on to one philosophy for everything.