From Charlie Munger’s “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”
“Living in dominance hierarchies as he does, like all his ancestors before him, man was born mostly to follow leaders, with only a few people doing the leading. And so, human society is formally organized into dominance hierarchies, with their culture augmenting the natural follow-the-leader tendency of man.” (p.488)
“So strong is undue respect for authority that this CEO, and many even worse examples, have actually been allowed to remain in control of important business institutions for long periods after it was clear they should be removed. Be careful whom you appoint to power because a dominant authority figure will often be hard to remove, aided as he will be by Authority-Misinfluence Tendency.”
“A physician left a written order for a nurse treating an earache, as follows: “Two drops, twice a day, r. ear” The nurse then directed the patient to turn over and put the eardrops in his anus.”