Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork and the Myth of Total Efficiency, by Tom DeMarco
Trimming the slack from an organization in an effort to reduce overhead will leave a company with an increased profit margin at the cost of becoming inflexible. “Slack is the natural enemy of efficiency, and efficiency is the natural enemy of slack.” Knowledge work cannot be optimized in the same manner as manufacturing because it is creative by nature, and creative work is requires immersion, experimentation, and… well.. slack.