You are never alone – there’s always at least one other person working through the same questions. That’s something 20+ years of blogging has consistently proved to me via private responses to my public posts. In asking about Paul Krugman’s assertions regarding our industry’s billionaires, and expanding it to include more of us (the tech elite), I received several versions of “I share your concerns but also just living in my corner of the world, trying to do good work,” which is totally normal. ‘Can you be part of the system without also being part of the problem’ is something I wonder as well. I am 25+ years in technology; I’ve held positions of responsibility on notable products; as an investor I’ve committed other people’s money – and now our own – into hundreds of startups. While you’d likely list many techies ahead of me on the current list of ‘their decisions have global impact,’ historically I’ve been in some of those rooms. So, can you be part of the system – the commercial tech industry – without also being being part of the problem? I’ve decided the answer is Yes, But….
Yes, but you have to believe that the system itself isn’t corrupt at its core. I believe in capitalism and I believe in technology as forces that have incredibly powerful and positive implications for the world.
Yes, but you should revisit your first principles and maintain dialogue with people you respect from outside of your system. You have to try to truly understand their POV and you have to know that you might be wrong.
Yes, but you need to understand how the physics of the system – the game on the field – itself influence the behaviors and incentives, why the defaults are so strong, and what you want to limit, counter, or reject. And the cost of doing so.
Yes, but it’s healthy to maintain a personal identity and variety of relationships that aren’t system dependent. It’s harder to not conform or to leave a community behind if needed when it isn’t just your livelihood but your everything.
This is a WIP list but helped articulate a basic framrwork; where I’ve been challenging in maintaining those beliefs; and what in the future could make it harder for me to *not* be part of the problem. Next step was asking myself for examples of ‘living’ those values.
What systems have I opted out from? Twitter. Even before Elon I made some meaningful changes to its role in my life and after the sale, I decided it wasn’t for me going forward.
What incentives have I pushed against? Capital We always wanted Homebrew to be small enough to be able to say ‘no’ to investments/areas that we didn’t feel comfortable with from a values perspective. Switching to using our own capital makes this even easier. One reason for creating Screendoor, which backs new VC firms, was the goal of helping new types of excellence debut in the marketplace, to the benefit of founders, and threatening those existing firms which wants to stay mediocre.
Leaving Google helped me start to build an identity outside of my job, but it was really a combination of fatherhood and new hobbies which gave me a set of people where my interactions didn’t start with being on an org chart or cap table together.
All of this is caveated with the fact we might be living in extraordinary times that I’m underestimating the trajectory, or that I implicitly designed a framework to justify my choices. That I’m ‘greenwashing’ per se, to let me stay comfortable. I’ll accept these notions and continue to challenge myself on my own and with the help of others.