Comment by ChrisMarshallNY

In my experience, the term "tribal knowledge" is a pejorative, and has been disparaged by many authors (some, that I respect).

Also, in my experience, "tribal knowledge" is an essential ingredient in classical Maximum Quality engineering. I'm not saying that it's the only way, but I have seen many, many other ways fail.

It's something that -no exaggeration- humans have been doing for thousands of years.

It's just that we have a crew at the top that sincerely believe they know better. Every now and then, one hits it out of the park.

The rest ... not so much.