The Peter Principle wears White Sox

Way back in 1969 — a year in which, perhaps not coincidentally, the White Sox lost 94 games — the New York Times list of bestselling nonfiction books was topped for four months by a huge surprise. That surprise was The Peter Principle by Southern Cal professor Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull, based on Peter’s work.

The book was intended to be satirical, but like much great satire, it was very, very close to the truth — to the point it has been used in many an MBA course since, perhaps even one taken by Rick Hahn.