I was listening to a guest lecturer at a Buddhist school in Berkeley who owned a software start-up company that had recently been sold. Describing the new office culture of the people who bought his company, he said that people who screw up are said to have a “bozo bit.” Once the bozo bit has been set on an individual, they have a hard time removing the stigma of that label.
Does this sound to anyone else like having a “kick me” sign taped to your back?
“Bozo bit” originated with a book written by Jim McCarthy, “Dynamics of Software Development” (Microsoft Press).
“Believe it or not, most people don”t want to think,” McCarthy says. “They think they want to think, but they don”t. It”s easier not to and to instead flip the bozo bit ? that”s what we call it at Microsoft: ?That dude”s a bozo!” Then nobody pays any attention to anything the putative bozo says or does forever more. And as far as his making a contribution is concerned, he”s just dead weight, a bozo.”
McCarthy says that a person can flip the bozo bit against someone out of defensiveness, because he or she feels challenged by that person”s criticism. A “reciprocal” response is when the person whose input is repeatedly rebuffed, flips the bozo bit on the person who refuses to accept his criticism.
But there is a cost to flipping the bozo bit, as McCarthy explains: “Flipping the bozo bit is pernicious ? costly, brutal, and nearly impossible not to do, especially when you are the one rebuffed. And once a leader has flipped the bozo bit on someone, people under the leader”s influence will do likewise.”
The remedy, according to McCarthy, is “to look within and make every effort to purify your part of the communication, whichever role you play in it. If the recipient is finding it difficult to accept your input, find a way to make it easier. …
“Conversely,” he adds, “if someone keeps giving you ?bad” feedback or ?lousy” ideas, look within to make sure that some primitive territorial defense isn”t clouding your judgment.”
From its origin in McCarthy”s book, the expression “bozo bit” appears amid a number of references in blogs.
I found one reference that I especially liked, on Corey and Lori”s Quest Log Blog on www.theschoolforheroes.com: “We rely on all of our students to set their own bozo bits ? not on themselves or others, but on the words they might say that could be harmful.”
This is a use for “bozo bits” that I wholeheartedly endorse. I see no reason why a person can”t enjoy the freedom of expression to advance a well thought-out argument without resorting to name-calling or personal attacks. The latter course is nothing more than resorting to mental laziness.
If a person employs bullying, name-calling and abuse in an attempt to get his or her own way, I believe it is permissible and even imperative to flip the bozo bit on these tactics and deny the person”s desired outcome for as long as the tactics persist. Flip the bozo bit on the behavior and not on the individual, allowing the possibility that this person may behave better next time.
Cynthia Parkhill is the focus pages editor for the record-Bee and editor of the Clear Lake Observer-American. She can be contacted at ObserverAmerican@gmail.com or 263-5636 ext. 39.
