Justice & Law Quote by Dee Hock

In one brisk line, Dee Hock smuggles an ethical critique into what looks like a cool-headed “law of nature.” The phrasing matters: by calling it the closest thing to a natural law, he’s mocking how reliably organizations behave when no one is watching the incentives. “Form” is the visible theater of business - org charts, committees, glossy decks, compliance rituals, status meetings, rebrands. It “has an affinity for expense” because it multiplies to justify itself. You can always spend more to look coordinated, safe, modern, and serious; the bill arrives predictably.

“Substance,” by contrast, is the unromantic part: a product that actually works, a service that reduces friction, decisions made quickly, talent deployed where it matters. It “has an affinity for income” because customers don’t pay for your internal choreography; they pay for outcomes. Hock is pointing at a structural mismatch: inside companies, form is rewarded because it’s legible to managers and investors (metrics, optics, process). Substance is harder to measure and slower to explain, even when it’s what creates value.

Context sharpens the jab. As the founder of Visa and a champion of decentralized “chaordic” organizations, Hock spent a career watching scale breed bureaucracy. The line isn’t anti-design or anti-process; it’s anti-mistaking the wrapper for the work. The subtext is a warning: if your business starts optimizing for what can be presented rather than what can be delivered, your cost base will grow faster than your legitimacy.