Hennepin County is practicing what's called a results-only work environment, or ROWE, which gives everyone in a company the freedom to do their job when and where they want, as long as the work gets done. The state of Minnesota signed a contract for the program last year as part of a campaign to reduce rush hour traffic on 35W in Minneapolis. Nationwide, 3 percent of businesses now say they have a ROWE, though as far as participants here in Hennepin County know, theirs is the first public agency to adopt it. Many are ecstatic at the way it's working so far.

So again we see another instance of an interesting concept: the more open and free something is, the higher the maturity level required of the people using it. You can't have democracy in a country of idiots. And similarly, you can't have ROWE in a company of mouthbreathers.