# What Is the Difference Between Ridley Scott and Joseph Goebbels?

Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2015/10/16/ridley-scott-and-joseph-goebbels.html

I saw [The Martian](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/)
this weekend, and it triggered a few thoughts. Of course, I didn't like
the movie as a
[piece of art]({% pst 2014/apr/2014-04-06-movies-for-thanasis %}).
It is total garbage, but this is not my point.
There is something bigger to discuss, aside from the bad acting, primitive
story-line, politically correct but absolutely unrealistic casting,
and tons of logical inconsistencies. It's Hollywood; what
should I expect, right? Not just that. I think the problem is bigger.


{% jb_picture_body %}

Have any of you seen this movie: [Cossacks of the Kuban](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041562/)?
It was shot in 1949, when [Joseph Stalin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin)
was in power, the [Soviet Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union)
was literally broke, and [WWII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II)
brought people to the point of _starvation_.
However, the film showed something completely opposite---wealthy villages, rich peasants, and tables full of food.

It was [propaganda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda) in 1949.

But isn't it quite similar to what I've just seen a few days ago,
produced and directed in 2015 by [Ridley Scott](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000631/)?

{% badge /images/2015/10/ussr-symbol.jpg L https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union %}

In 1949, the goal of Soviet propaganda was to convince people that
their personal situations with a lack of food and lack of future were
just their local, personal _exceptions_ to a more general rule. And that
rule was that the country was full of food. The country was governed by
the principles of socialism, and they were working perfectly.

In 2015, the goal of Hollywood propaganda is to convince us that the
organizational and motivational problems in our
[offices]({% pst 2015/oct/2015-10-06-how-to-be-good-office-slave %}) are just local exceptions to
the general rule. The rule is simple: project management is not important
if we're all good friends.

{% quote The truth is that you are not going to get anywhere if you follow the spirit of this movie %}

Ridley Scott is telling us that in a perfect organization, such as
[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/),
everybody _loves_ everyone; that's why they can get a man from Mars without
even a map. Do the same in your company and you will be fine. You don't
need risk planning, you just need a hero. Actually, you'd be better off
with a couple of heroes who love each other.

That doesn't work for you? It must be a problem with implementation.
Keep trying and smiling.

Make friends, don't make plans.

It is a lie, very similar to the lie we heard in 1949.

The truth is that you are not going to get anywhere if you follow
the spirit of this movie. In reality, teamwork must look completely
different. There are
[conflicts]({% pst 2017/jan/2017-01-03-how-much-you-love-conflicts %}),
fights, politics, betrayals, back-stabbing,
leakage of information, and just primitive incompetence. To manage all
this, one can't just be a _nice guy_ with a big heart. I would even say
that being a nice guy is a drawback for any management position in a modern
organization. Well, in any organization at any time and in any place.

Project management is [not]({% pst 2015/mar/2015-03-02-team-morale-myths-and-reality %})
about compassion and sympathy. It is about
accurate and routine comparison of risks, probabilities, impacts, and
their mitigation plans. It is about
[setting rules]({% pst 2015/sep/2015-09-22-micromanagement %})
and making _decisions_. It is about making sure
these decisions are being executed, precisely and without mistakes.
It is about [making sure]({% pst 2015/sep/2015-09-16-how-to-fire-someone-right %})
those who've made mistakes are _punished_ while those who've
done everything right are _rewarded_.

A team of six. In a multi-million-dollar spaceship.
Flying to another planet to save one person.
Against explicit instructions from upper management.
They come back as national heroes.
Are you serious?

Have you tried to deploy a new feature on a production server against
the direct will of your boss? Try it. No spaceships, no Mars. Just
a piece of code and a simple server. Then try to convince your boss
that you're a hero.

I'm sure you get the point.

{% picture /images/2015/10/martian.jpg 0 Shooting The Martian (by popsci.com) %}

So, why is Ridley Scott _lying_ to us?
Why is he giving us a false picture of reality?
Intentionally _false_. He knows better than I do how real management
works in real-life organizations. Hollywood is not much different
than Silicon Valley in this aspect. So, why is he lying?

{% badge /images/2015/10/third-reich-symbol.jpg L https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany %}

Why was [Joseph Goebbels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels),
a minister of propaganda in the Third Reich,
lying to the German people?

Because that's what we like to hear, _unfortunately_.

It is sad, but we don't want to know the truth. We didn't want to know about
Nazi war crimes---so Joseph Goebbels built a _fake_ reality for us.
We don't want to know about the true principles of management---so Ridley Scott built fake ones for us.

Think about it.