Science Quote by Jon Postel

Postel is smuggling a warning into a metaphor that sounds almost friendly: standards and governance can die by a thousand helpful edits. By likening corporate documents to football game plans, he points at a truth anyone who has sat through an all-hands doc review recognizes: some writing is operational, not performative. It exists to coordinate action under pressure, not to demonstrate democratic virtue.

The stadium image is doing heavy lifting. A stadium is loud, emotionally invested, and built for spectatorship. Postel’s jab is that large institutions increasingly treat working documents like public rituals, where participation becomes a proxy for legitimacy. The “very interested fans” aren’t villains; they’re the engine of dysfunction. Everyone brings a “red pencil,” implying not just feedback but ownership, status, and the quiet belief that good process means touching every sentence. Consensus becomes the goal, and precision becomes collateral damage.

Context matters: Postel wasn’t just any scientist; he was central to the early Internet’s plumbing and the culture around RFCs and protocol design. The line reads like a defense of the small, accountable drafting group that actually has to make the system work. Openness, in his view, is for review and improvement, not for writing-by-committee theatrics.

Underneath the wit is a governance philosophy: invite broad scrutiny, but don’t pretend that thousands of voices can co-author a coherent strategy. The crowd can spot problems. It cannot call the play.