Decentralization

is like making pizza.

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• So Instead, lets describe decentralization in a different way. Lets look at everyones favorite food (or at least mine) pizza:
  .
  You work at a pizza place and it’s a busy Friday night. Your boss is too busy to talk but you just finished your break and need to get back to work. You look around to see that no one is running the cash register, so you jump behind the counter and start helping.
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  Since your boss is too busy to manage the team, your team is working as a decentralized system of pizza artists. Each artist is making a decision to help where they see fit and as a result, pizza is made.

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We've all had bosses like that haven't we? That's a pretty good explanation. The article goes on in greater detail.

Another way to explain it is that decisions are made at the very lowest level of the organization. If the stockboy in a department store sees a problem that he can fix, he does so, he doesn't wait for orders from corporate.

That would be socialism.

Socialism, or a planned economy is micromanagement of individuals in their daily lives.

It works pretty good for ants.

For people? Not so much.

Take it a bit further...

Widely Distributed, Massively Redundant, and Hugely Parallel
In other words NOT an assembly line. Each and every individual in the pizza shop makes the pizza all by himself. It may seem inefficient when compared to assembly lines...and it is.

BUT...if something happens to ONE guy (or several) production doesn't stop. Pizza continues to be made if at a slower rate.

Think net...not chain.

A break in the strand of a net is no big thing, but a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.