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Frame from The Wire: The parable of the bowls of shit. Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

The Wire: The parable of the bowls of shit.

Jon B
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YouTube
Cited on HN 3 times, 2012–2019, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as a parable that leaders must absorb criticism and do the unpleasant work nobody else will.

A clip from The Wire (season 4, episode 7) in which a former mayor tells Tommy Carcetti about having to "eat shit" from each constituency during his term. It is a parable about the unpleasant compromises of political leadership.

“regardless of the size of the organization, its leaders are the ones who must deal with the stuff no one else can or wants to tackle.” (HN, 2012)

2 citations · 1 jokes · Other

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@cs702 Jun 2012 Cites it
on HN thread You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor
This article reminds me a bit of 'the parable of the silver bowls:' [this video] -- regardless of the size of the organization, its leaders are the ones who must deal with the stuff no one else can or wants to tackle.
Parable that leaders must handle the unpleasant work nobody else will
@randycupertino Mar 2017 Cites it
on HN thread A profound apology
The whole thing reminds me of when Tommy Carcetti becoming mayor scene from the Wire. The old outgoing mayor is giving him some advice and he basically explains that when you're mayor you have to smile and eat shit from everybody- the unions, the lobbyists, the press, the teachers, the churches... and smile and act gracious while you're doing it. [this video] Travis should have just smiled and eaten this guys shit, because that's just part of being CEO. "Thank you for your feedback, we'll look into it. Keep up the good work and thanks for the ride!"
Scene on how a mayor must smile and eat criticism
@Sharlin Jan 2019 Makes a joke
on HN thread Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament
I don't understand her endgame either. Or how she can handle the stress. Her predecessor basically ordered the biggest bowl of shit [1] in the recent history and then bailed out. Now May's job is to eat it all. Masochistic. [1] [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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