- "If I am sticking to a project and I have been working on it for a year or two, I might think this project really is a good idea," Mochon said. "So while someone external might look at my project and say, 'You know, that's a failed project, I'm not sure you should be spending time on it,' because it is the fruit of my own labor, because of the Ikea Effect, I might think that it is much better than it really is."
This is why ever great movie director has a even greater producer behind them saying "no" to 90% of their "great ideas." This is also why the CEO of my company, a great inventor and innovator, is so dreadfully horrid at managing his business. He has no one ever telling him his ideas are bad. So we have a company going in literally 19 different directions, none of which are producing any more money. You need someone on the outside to take a look at your ideas and evaluate them objectively.
I think this problem also is relevant to dictators and other absolute monarchs in history. A lot of them have miserably failed their country because nobody ever had the guts to say no to them without fear of punishment. I can't help but think of Joe Stalin, who in his wisdom while trying to raise Russia from rags to riches had nobody stopping him from creating the Holodomor that happened in the Ukraine. Instead of facing the music from knowledgable people who could review his ideas and correct them, thought it would be better for those people to be purged to the gulagsHe has no one ever telling him his ideas are bad. So we have a company going in literally 19 different directions, none of which are producing any more money. You need someone on the outside to take a look at your ideas and evaluate them objectively.