Imagine a nuclear power plant. You need to determine how to distribute the fuel load in the reactor. Where to place which fuel with what enrichment, where to transfer partially burned assemblies, where to position fresh ones, and so on. There is a standard regulation that outlines the principles for how this should be done. This regulation is the result of the work, knowledge, and many years of experience of a large number of scientists and engineers.
But let’s imagine that at the nuclear power plant, they decide that in order to make the right decision and take everyone’s opinions into account, they need to gather a “fuel committee” and hear what the transporters have to say about the most efficient way to transport the assemblies, what the economists think about the costs, what the accountants say regarding the finances, what the procurement specialists suggest about the purchasing schedule, and what the waste management team advises about how and where to dispose of the fuel. They will also consider what the HR department has to say about the availability of specialists and their vacation schedules, as well as what the sanitation service thinks about the planned radiation doses.
Yes, of course, all departments are involved in the fuel transfer process. And if you ask all of them, the obvious decision will be not to transfer the fuel, while the voice of the simple engineer, who is the only one familiar with the regulations, will simply be drowned out or lost in the voting. Or even worse, they will enter into unproductive debates and postpone the decision for another month. That’s why this doesn’t happen at nuclear power plants.
For some reason, in other areas, it is commonly believed that ten incompetent people can make a more competent decision than one competent person (or, at the very least, someone who is genuinely responsible according to their job description), despite the existing experience, regulations, and knowledge. And if there are doubts about the competence of these individuals, they decide to call in a couple more people, whose competence will be evaluated by… the same ten.