Trying to build a company that doesn't make the world worse
If you’re someone who’s worked in the tech industry (or any industry, really), you’ve probably borne witness to the many ways in which the products you’ve built (and organizations you’ve worked for) can be harmful.
You may have even seen that harm be intentional: a calculated decision to prioritize profit over people, the type of decision the market responds to with such enthusiasm that onlooking executives develop exciting new business strategies.
I won’t go through an exhaustive list of all the reasons I think this happens, but I believe that it’s enabled the most by one thing we can—though rarely do—enforce:
Accountability
In a meta where executives and majority shareholders rule with no accountability, it’s difficult for employees to do much to influence an organization’s direction beyond resigning. No voting power, no leverage, bills to pay, and a job market that is widely regarded as not great means that salvation probably won’t come from the bottom.
Above, endless layers of middle management confound and control. Together, they ensure that success thrusts upward triumphantly while failure dribbles down below. A life of meetings, spreadsheets, and presentations; in return a fragile fiefdom and the occasional booster seat at the table.
At the top, even with the best intentions, the pressure to perform and meet expectations leads to predictable decisions. An unfaithful market constantly reminds that its love is conditional, and that other suitors are lying in wait. Plus, the world looks much smaller from an ivory tower, you can barely see the ants burning.
Outside, network effects, walled gardens, and lack of competition—due to years of ineffective and unenforced antitrust law—make it difficult for buyers to vote with their wallets. A predatory corporate ecosystem favors the ruthless, and survival of the shittest hasn’t evolved consumer-friendly outcomes.
Each layer is trapped.
Some by design, some by incentives, some by an inexplicable desire to hoard riches in the heart of the Lonely Mountain. As justice bottlenecks, consequences accumulate. Humanity’s tab builds, while the ones who ordered fancy cocktails and multiple entrees conspire to sit it out in the restroom.
The solution
Abolish the monarchy.
Or, at least, the ones with org charts.
Create flat or other interestingly-shaped organizations with immediate checks and balances on power. Build communities where every member has some say, where decisions are made collaboratively rather than top-down, and consensus cannot be ignored or obscured. Make it dynamic enough to self-correct when it needs to. Let experts in their domains make decisions they’re best equipped to make, and defer to others for those they’re not. Incentivize participation, discourage apathy, outlaw exploitation. Care for others to know you’ll be cared for.
Reject employment contracts that force you or others to invest into an imbalanced power dynamic and unfair compensation just because it’s better than serfdom. Don’t accept the notion that starting a company or having money is a valid reason to sit above others in perpetuity. Stop idolizing wealth and excess. Save your time and attention for something meaningful.
Be transparent. Be accountable. Be different. Be brave.
Don’t be evil.
✌️
- ez co