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Title Inflation

Cloud Computing Ninja?

The recent Schumpeter article about title inflation is really pretty hilarious, not so much because of the humour about the leader of North Korea but because it is really true. It's amusing how people try to inflate job titles and it's to their disadvantage because of how opaque it makes the job become.

Fluffing up titles isn't only happening in the corporate sector; there are plenty of clubs and societies at schools and Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) that does that. It looks good on your portfolio and more presentable when you try to apply for scholarships, internships, attachments or even try to participate in some seminars. The question is whether the title should be 'important-sounding' or that it should appear to bear loads of responsibilities. In any case, the whole affair is much like the classical signaling games in game theory where signaling grows to epic proportions and undermines the purpose itself. It's all part of evolution; much like how deers who may have grown huge anthers find it hard to escape in dense forests (they get caught between trunks) or peacocks with such big nice feathers it is really heavy for them to open them up.

When the titles that are exaggerated appear to be ineffective signaling device or would backfire, there would be movements to simplify them and scale down the intensity of use. Perhaps then someday, we'll know of our CEOs as 'boss'.