History Main / RightHandVersusLeftHand

In any sort of story, good communication will [[RuleOfFunny often be counterproductive to comedy]] and [[DramaPreservingHandicap drama]]. But even in a dramatic sense, there are moments when the lack of communication is why two people are enemies, simply because [[LetsYouAndHimFight they don't know what side the other is on.]] In a large organization, the intended goals are not always entirely clear to everyone. Sometimes the project is so secret that the two groups don't know the other is working on it. These will often lead two parts of the same group doing counter-productive things, not knowing what the other is working towards.

* One story from the Reality TV show ''Disorderly Conduct: Video On Patrol'' mixed this with a close shave of JurisdictionFriction. A drug supplier had been busted earlier in the day, and a cop went undercover pretending to be the supplier so a crew on a stakeout could apprehend the buyers. It goes well for at first with a couple of marks -- until his next "customer" is ''another cop'' from a different department, ignorant of the stakeout and merely responding to noise complaints from the neighbors (undoubtedly from all the scuffles). Because they don't want any suspicious activity dissuading the incoming criminals, the undercover cop has to play his part to the hilt and convince the errant officer to leave without revealing the stakeout. Thankfully, it works, and the night goes on with no shortage of drug buyers taking the bait. This was likely a fun story for the snooping officer to hear the next day.

* One story from the Reality TV show ''Disorderly Conduct: Video On Patrol'' mixed this with a close shave of JurisdictionFriction. A drug supplier had been busted earlier in the day, and a cop went undercover pretending to be the supplier so a crew one a stakeout could apprehend the customers. It goes well for at first with a couple of marks -- until his next "customer" is ''another cop'' from a different department, ignorant of the stakeout and merely responding to noise complaints from the neighbors (undoubtedly from all the scuffles). Because they don't want any suspicious activity dissuading the incoming criminals, the undercover cop has to play his part to the hilt and convince the errant officer to leave without revealing the stakeout. Thankfully, it works, and the night goes on with no shortage of drug buyers taking the bait. This was likely a fun story for the snooping officer to hear the next day.

** This was a major factor in why RCA's [[UsefulNotes/{{CED}} CED/[=SelectaVision=]]] system wound up being released when it did and why it used the sort of technology it had. As ''WebVideo/TechnologyConnections'' [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0jwu7G_DFVP0SGNlBiBtFVkV5LZ7SOU can explain]], RCA was plagued for years by friction between their laboratories wing and the rest of the company -- Labs would invent something that was CoolButInefficient and the other parts of the company would have to figure out what to do with it after -- and by general resentment over the privileged status that Labs had. Work on what became the CED began as far back as 1964, RCA higher-ups hoping that the efficient, cost-effective methods of making, buying and playing vinyl records and players could be applied to playback of video. But things didn't exactly work out that way, and [[DevelopmentHell development slowed to a crawl]] until the 1970s (by which time they had to invent the plastic caddies that [=CEDs=] were encased in because handling the fragile discs by hand led to problems, unlike vinyl records); even then, constant revolving-door leadership at RCA (including an AudienceAlienatingEra they never quite recovered from, when under Robert Sarnoff -- son of the famed David Sarnoff -- they expanded into all sorts of business areas; the popular joke, even among RCA executives, was that the name now stood for [[FunWithAcronyms Rugs, Chickens and Automobiles]]) meant the future of the project was constantly in question. The project was nearly cancelled entirely, but a combination of SunkCostFallacy and corporate pride ultimately made them go ahead with the launch...in ''1981'', by which time Platform/{{VHS}}, Betamax, and Platform/LaserDisc had all beaten RCA to market. Sales never went as well as RCA had hoped and they discontinued the system in stages; the players ceased production in 1984, and the final discs were released in 1986, by which time GE had bought RCA (primarily for Creator/{{NBC}}) and were busy dismantling it.

** This was a major factor in why RCA's [[UsefulNotes/{{CED}} CED/[=SelectaVision=]]] system wound up being released when it did and why it used the sort of technology it had. As ''WebVideo/TechnologyConnections'' [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0jwu7G_DFVP0SGNlBiBtFVkV5LZ7SOU can explain]], RCA was plagued for years by friction between their laboratories wing and the rest of the company -- Labs would invent something that was CoolButInefficient and the other parts of the company would have to figure out what to do with it after -- and by general resentment over the privileged status that Labs had. Work on what became the CED began as far back as 1964, RCA higher-ups hoping that the efficient, cost-effective methods of making, buying and playing vinyl records and players could be applied to playback of video. But things didn't exactly work out that way, and [[DevelopmentHell development slowed to a crawl]] until the 1970s (by which time they had to invent the plastic caddies that [=CEDs=] were encased in because handling the fragile discs by hand led to problems, unlike vinyl records); even then, constant revolving-door leadership at RCA (including an AudienceAlienatingEra they never quite recovered from, when under Robert Sarnoff -- son of the famed David Sarnoff -- they expanded into all sorts of business areas; the popular joke, even among RCA executives, was that the name now stood for [[FunWithAcronyms Rugs, Chickens and Automobiles]]) meant the future of the project was constantly in question. The project was nearly cancelled entirely, but a combination of SunkCostFallacy and corporate pride ultimately made them go ahead with the launch...in ''1981'', by which time UsefulNotes/{{VHS}}, Betamax, and UsefulNotes/LaserDisc had all beaten RCA to market. Sales never went as well as RCA had hoped and they discontinued the system in stages; the players ceased production in 1984, and the final discs were released in 1986, by which time GE had bought RCA (primarily for Creator/{{NBC}}) and were busy dismantling it.

[[folder:Folklore, Mythology and Religion]]

*** Even the NonSerialMovie manages to pit ZECT against itself twice over: There's ZECT vs. Neo-ZECT (former ZECT members who want to create an organization that's like ZECT minus the douchebaggery) and then ZECT vs. [[spoiler:the higher-up who wants the Worms to win because they store the memories of the humans they replace - he believes this is the only way for something of humanity to survive the post-apocalyptic world that occurred in the movie timeline ForWantOfANail.]]

** Various parts of Creator/{{Sega}}'s American and Japanese divisions all tried to launch an entire solar system of extraterrestrially codenamed products ([[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis CD, 32X,]] [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]], etc.), plus numerous other, often incompatible, combinations thereof. It didn't help that [[WeAreStrugglingTogether there was mistrust]] and a [[PoorCommunicationKills lack of communication between Sega's Japanese and American branches]] (driven by the Japanese branch's jealousy and resentment at the American branch marketing the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis[=/=]Mega Drive, which was collateral in the Creator/{{Nintendo}} vs. [[UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 PC Engine]] wars in Japan, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff to massive success in North America and Europe]]), not to mention [[ExecutiveMeddling general executive failure]] (mostly from the infamous [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Bernie Stolar]], who is often held as having singlehandedly killed the Saturn in America by [[NoExportForYou preventing anything that was worth playing on the system from reaching America]]). The resulting collision landed with a dull thud in the marketplace and was largely responsible for obliterating Sega as a hardware manufacturer (as they were in so much debt, they would've had to sell an unrealistic amount of [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcasts]] to become profitable again, which didn't happen thanks to the hype over the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 meaning everyone forgot about the Dreamcast).

*** In a tamer example, Sony Interactive Entertainment (the video games arm) has [[FandomRivalry a bitter rivalry]] with Nintendo in UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars. However, Sony's mobile phone arm, Sony Mobile, doesn't have ''any'' rivalry with Nintendo and doesn't mind any Nintendo-related {{Mobile Phone Game}}s to be played on their phones. Sony and Microsoft's rivalry doesn't extend beyond video gaming either[[note]]Sony and Microsoft had a rivalry in mobile phone segment, but the latter faltered and Microsoft's mobile business has since withered away[[/note]].

** Nokia. The infighting of the UsefulNotes/{{Symbian}} group and the [=MeeGo=] group, and then Stephen Elop came, apparently without leaving Microsoft's paycheck. Official statement? "Windows Phone 7 is our way forward and we won't port Qt to it. But we are still developing Qt."

* The origin of the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}'s infamous "Duke" controller is down to this. Microsoft outsourced the development of the controller's internal circuitry to an outside contractor before they had even began working on the controller's design. When the contractor returned with a design centred around a single large circuit board, that's what Microsoft's own designers had to work around, resulting in a controller that was unusually large and wide, with poor ergonomics due to those bizarre proportions.