Promotion at random is better! Tenure makes you more "incompetent" -- Peter's principle proved by two italian scientists!

If you are upset about promotion system, look at what two italian friends proved recently, which was immediately popular before the paper publication, also because they proved random promotion is more efficient!

Peter's principle is not only about hierarchies.  it explains why movie sequels are worse than the original film on which they are based and why second visits to restaurants are less rewarding than the first. One advantage of Italian Universities is that it is so chaotic that sometimes you give up completely taking a line of research proposals, and are free to invent something new.  This is how my friends in Catania demonstrated Peter's principle and were able reaching the news worldwide, well before paper was even published!  

Indee, they recently won the IgNobel prize

IG-NOBEL PRIZE 2010 FOR MANAGEMENT to

Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda and Cesare Garofalo,

"for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if promotions were made at random!"

September 30, 2010 - Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Boston (USA)

Video of the entire ceremony   -   Transcription of the ceremony   -   Related Links

http://oldweb.ct.infn.it/cactus/peter-links.html
http://oldweb.ct.infn.it/cactus/peter_principle.html 

for background, see  Peter Principle

1. ^ http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.0455
2. ^ Pluchino, Alessandro; Rapisarda, Andrea; Garofalo, Cesare (2009), "The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study", ArXiv, http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.0455, retrieved 2009-08-26 
3. ^ Pluchino, Alessandro; Rapisarda, Andrea; Garofalo, Cesare (2010), "The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study", Physica A 389 (2010) 467, http://spedr.com/589u1, retrieved 2009-08-26 
4. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30091642/