--- title: The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People description: Overcome the promotion politics canonical: https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-20T11:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:19:35.924Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People og:description: Overcome the promotion politics og:url: https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0bade99f6ad138fd/698786e08e06017d2f45b22c/business-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=483&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 483 og:image:height: 272 og:image:alt: business-handshake.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People twitter:description: Overcome the promotion politics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0bade99f6ad138fd/698786e08e06017d2f45b22c/business-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=483&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Apr 20, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Businessmen shaking hands outdoors Businessmen shaking hands outdoors Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Apr 20, 2015 11:00 AM UTC If you’ve ever worked in an organization, you’ve no doubt come across someone in senior management and asked yourself how they ever got promoted. The Peter Principle, coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book [_The Peter Principle_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062092065/farnamstreet-20), contends that, in a hierarchy, people are sooner or later promoted to positions which they are no longer skilled to handle. This is their “level of incompetence.” This is where they stay. James March offers some [compelling insight](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2011/08/promoting-people-in-organizations/) into why this happens. In his book [_High Output Management_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679762884/farnamstreet-20), Andy Grove points out that this is largely unavoidable because there is no way to know a priori at what point the person will be incapable of handling further promotions. In [_The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062273205/farnamstreet-20)Ben Horowitz discusses the Law of Crappy People. --- > “” --- Horowitz suggests the best way to overcome this is with a properly constructed and disciplined hiring process. --- > “” --- Most management teams I’ve worked with spend too little time on promotions, which encourages politics. Employees see gaps in the process and focus on exploiting them. Another big mistake is hiring by consensus, which leads to hiring for a lack of weakness rather than a strength. This kills organizations. **_This_** [**_piece_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/02/ben-horowitz-the-law-of-crappy-people/) **_originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/"},"headline":"The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People","datePublished":"2015-04-20T11:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:19:35.924Z","description":"Overcome the promotion politics","url":"https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/","keywords":["Psychology","Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0bade99f6ad138fd/698786e08e06017d2f45b22c/business-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0bade99f6ad138fd/698786e08e06017d2f45b22c/business-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"business-handshake.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3772328/peter-principle-law-of-crappy-people/","name":"The Peter Principle and the Law of Terrible People"}}]}] ```