Are They Neurotic?

Many years back I saw a show on television about pet store practices and how animal were mistreated. One of the specialists being interviewed said that you could tell how adverse the circumstances were for the animals becasue they developed neurotic behaviors. How can you tell an animal is neurotic? - I wondered. And they answered the question as soon as it popped into my mind. Pointless, repetitive, ritualized behaviors that do not produce a desried result are, according to this show, neurotic behaviors. Well, I thought, then who is not neurotic?

This seems to apply a lot more often than it should to people in corporate settings who attend meetings, fill out status sheets, and have ritualized discussions with their peers, but who do not actually achieve any desirable results. It also occured to me that it was a good description of Linden Lab's product strategy.

LL seems to be stuck in a rut of neurotic behaviors. They revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. They reoroganize the volunteers. Nothing changes. So, they revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. And they reorganize the volunteers. Once again, nothign changes. So, I have to ask - Are They Neurotic?